Overview
- Reporting details a tense NRSC call in which the committee’s executive director, Jennifer DeCasper, told Cassidy he should not have voted to convict Trump, underscoring strained ties with party leaders.
- Public and private polls place Sen. Bill Cassidy, Rep. Julia Letlow, and former Rep. John Fleming in a close contest that is unlikely to produce a majority winner, pointing to a June runoff.
- Fleming, a co-founder of the House Freedom Caucus, is drawing a significant share of conservative voters, which blocks Letlow from consolidating the pro-Trump lane.
- Letlow has low name recognition, has been outspent on television, and has run ads that lean on Trump’s endorsement, while her rural north Louisiana base gives her fewer natural ties to the population centers around Baton Rouge and New Orleans.
- Cassidy and his allies are flooding the air with attacks on Letlow and running spots that cast him as close to Trump, as MAGA Inc. stays quiet on whether it will spend for Letlow.