Sen. Bill Cassidy is running out of friends. The Louisiana Republican, who voted to convict President Donald Trump after his second impeachment in January 2021, reportedly confronted the National Republican Senatorial Committee in a phone call, accusing the party's Senate campaign arm of not spending enough to save his seat. The response he got was blunt, and, by all accounts, profanity-laced.
Punchbowl News, citing multiple anonymous sources, reported Friday that NRSC Executive Director Jennifer DeCasper told Cassidy he should not have joined Democrats and six other Republican senators in voting to convict Trump. The exchange laid bare a fracture that has been widening since 2021, and one that now threatens to end Cassidy's Senate career in a May 16 GOP primary.
Cassidy faces two primary challengers: Rep. Julia Letlow, who carries Trump's endorsement, and Louisiana Treasurer John Fleming, a co-founder of the House Freedom Caucus. If no candidate wins a majority, the top two advance to a June 27 runoff. In a state Trump carried by 24 points in 2024, the winner of the Republican primary is all but guaranteed the general election seat.
The complaint about NRSC funding comes despite Cassidy's own considerable resources. His office released a statement in January claiming a combined war chest of $26 million between his campaign and allied groups. Senate Majority Leader John Thune endorsed Cassidy and headlined a Baton Rouge fundraiser that month, pulling in $652,000 for the incumbent's coffers.
The NRSC has also released video ads backing Cassidy. NRSC Chairman Tim Scott endorsed the senator and told Axios in March 2025 that the committee would support incumbent GOP senators during the 2026 cycle, even those facing Trump-backed challengers. "We're going to play in all of the races, all of our primaries," Scott said.
But Scott also acknowledged the obvious: incumbents face an uphill battle when Trump endorses against them. That is exactly the situation Cassidy now confronts.
Neither Cassidy's spokesperson nor the NRSC provided on-the-record comment about the reported phone call. Cassidy's spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment from the Daily Caller News Foundation.
Trump gave Letlow his "Complete and Total Endorsement," urging her to run for the seat. The Washington Times reported that Letlow announced her Senate bid days later, framing Trump's move as political retribution tied directly to Cassidy's 2021 conviction vote.
Republican strategists say the endorsement is not ceremonial. "The Trump endorsement is king in any primary," longtime Republican strategist Jesse Hunt told Fox News Digital. Veteran GOP consultant Matt Gorman called it "an undeniable force."
Cassidy once had Trump's backing. Trump endorsed him in the 2020 cycle, when the senator unseated Democrat Mary Landrieu's successor. But that relationship collapsed after the impeachment vote. National Review noted that Louisiana Republicans, including the state party, had already turned on Cassidy after 2021. Louisiana Republican Party Chairman Derek Babcock said bluntly: "It's going to be a tough primary for him."
Cassidy's attempts to rebuild the relationship appear to have failed. He advanced Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s nomination, a move seen as a gesture toward Trump's orbit, but it did not earn him the president's support. Trump reversed an earlier understanding that he would stay out of the Louisiana race and endorsed Letlow instead, as the Washington Examiner reported.
March polling paints a competitive but uncertain picture. The numbers vary depending on who commissioned the survey, a familiar pattern in contested primaries.
An American Pulse Research & Polling survey, cited by Letlow's spokesperson, showed Letlow at 31 percent, Fleming at 25, and Cassidy at 21. A BDPC poll told a similar story: Letlow 29, Fleming 23, Cassidy 19. In a hypothetical runoff from the American Pulse survey, Letlow led Fleming 37 to 34, with Cassidy eliminated entirely.
A Fabrizio, Lee & Associates poll of likely Republican primary voters told a tighter tale: Letlow 27, Cassidy 26, Fleming 19, with 28 percent undecided. In a hypothetical Letlow-Cassidy runoff, Letlow led 46 to 34, with 20 percent still undecided. Letlow's campaign told the Shreveport Times it did not commission that survey, though it uses the firm for polling.
Cassidy's own campaign-sponsored poll from Public Opinion Strategies showed the incumbent ahead: Cassidy 35, Letlow 24, Fleming 21. A hypothetical runoff from that survey had Cassidy edging Letlow 45 to 43. The gap between the most favorable and least favorable polls for Cassidy spans roughly 14 points, a range wide enough to sustain hope or dread, depending on which side you're on.
The broader dynamic in Trump's endorsement of Letlow reflects a pattern of direct presidential intervention in Republican primaries that has reshaped the party's internal politics.
Letlow worked at the University of Louisiana at Monroe before winning a 2021 special election to the House. Cassidy's campaign has sought to define her before she could define herself. Cassidy aide Mark Harris told Politico the race was a "dogfight," adding that Letlow had not built the expected large lead.
"Everyone's expectation is that she would shoot to a large lead and that we'd all be running from behind. But frankly I think they just weren't ready for this race."
Republican Louisiana state Rep. Mike Bayham, who has remained neutral in the primary, offered a similar assessment to Politico. "The Trump endorsement has not had a close-out move. Cassidy was ready for her," Bayham said. "They defined her before she introduced herself."
Fleming, the 74-year-old state treasurer and former congressman, presents a different challenge. Newsmax reported that Fleming said he was contacted multiple times by people in Trump's orbit asking whether anything could persuade him to drop out. A source told Punchbowl that the administration's goal was simply to get Cassidy out of the Senate. Fleming has stayed in, which risks splitting the anti-Cassidy vote.
This is the first Louisiana Senate election since the state switched back to traditional partisan primaries, ending the all-party "jungle primary" system used from 2010 through 2024. The new format concentrates the fight within the Republican electorate, exactly the audience most likely to punish Cassidy for his impeachment vote.
Cassidy is one of only three remaining GOP senators who voted to convict Trump in 2021. The other two, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Susan Collins of Maine, have taken different paths. Murkowski won reelection in 2022 despite Trump endorsing her opponent. Collins, the presumptive GOP nominee in Maine, is seeking reelection this November as the only Republican senator representing a state Kamala Harris won in 2024.
The internal tensions around Collins and Murkowski's positions on Trump-backed nominees have underscored how isolated these senators have become within their own conference.
Cassidy's situation is the most precarious of the three. Louisiana is deep-red territory. His state party chairman has publicly said he's in trouble. His own campaign's best poll shows a two-point runoff margin. And the NRSC, the institution designed to protect incumbents, reportedly told him, in blunt, unprintable terms, that he brought this on himself.
The broader question of how Republican leaders align behind Trump's priorities continues to define the party's internal discipline heading into 2026.
Cassidy spent millions building a war chest. He secured endorsements from the Senate majority leader and the NRSC chairman. He has the institutional machinery of incumbency behind him. And yet he reportedly called the NRSC to demand more, only to be reminded, sharply, why his political standing collapsed in the first place.
Louisiana voters will have their say on May 16. The question is not whether Cassidy will face consequences for his 2021 vote. The question is how severe those consequences will be, and whether a $26 million war chest can outrun a five-year-old betrayal that Republican voters have not forgotten.
In politics, as in life, choices have costs. Cassidy made his choice in January 2021. Louisiana Republicans are about to send him the bill.
