US Rep. Julia Letlow will win the Republican nomination for Senate in Louisiana, CNN’s Decision Desk projects, defeating state Treasurer John Fleming in a runoff in which she made her endorsement from President Donald Trump a centerpiece of her pitch.
Letlow’s victory all but ensures another Trump ally will join the GOP’s Senate ranks next year from the deep-red state and delivers the president an immediate boost in demonstrating his continued influence with GOP primary voters after Republicans in two states earlier this month rejected his choices in their races for governor.
In her victory speech, Letlow thanked Trump for his endorsement and called him “the greatest president this country has ever had.” She said Fleming had called and conceded.
“I will fight for our families. I will fight for our farmers. I will fight for our teachers. I will fight for our parents. I will fight for our law enforcement. I will fight for everyone in this room,” Letlow told supporters. “Every breath I have left, I will be fighting for Louisiana.”
In a post on Truth Social, Trump said Letlow’s victory was “great news.”
“Julia Letlow WON in Louisiana, beating conclusively a very strong and smart opponent. Congratulations to Julia. She will be a truly GREAT Senator!” Trump said.
Letlow and Fleming were vying to replace Sen. Bill Cassidy, a two-term Republican who finished third in the May 16 primary. Along with Texas Sen. John Cornyn, Cassidy is one of two GOP incumbents ousted in primaries this spring after Trump opposed them. The president’s bid for vengeance in Louisiana came after Cassidy voted in 2021 to convict Trump during his second impeachment trial.
In the primary, Letlow earned the most votes with nearly 45% support, followed by Fleming at 28% and Cassidy at almost 25%. Because no candidate received a majority, the top two finishers advanced to the runoff.
Saturday’s election was the latest test of Trump’s grip on the Republican Party. It comes during a midterm primary season that began with Trump pulling off an impressive string of victories — including ousting Cassidy, Cornyn and another intraparty foe, Kentucky Rep. Thomas Massie, as well as defeating Indiana state senators who rejected his calls for redistricting.
But in recent weeks, GOP voters have snubbed Trump — passing over his picks in Republican primaries for governor in Iowa and Georgia. His choice in South Carolina was also on track to lose ahead of last week’s primary runoff, so Trump — in a last-minute, face-saving move — also endorsed the other candidate, state Attorney General Alan Wilson, who went on to win by more than 30 points.
Trump held a telephone rally for Letlow on Thursday night. He said he has seen Letlow “tested at the highest level” and that she has “been a fearless champion for the people of your great state, right from the beginning.”
The president praised Letlow’s vote for his sweeping tax and spending measure last year, touted her support for his immigration enforcement efforts, and said she would back his elections bill that would broadly ban mail-in voting, require voter identification and more.
“She’s fantastic. She’s going to do a great job. She’s a warrior,” Trump said during his appearance, which lasted about six minutes.
Despite Trump’s endorsement, the ideological differences in the GOP race were relatively scant.
Fleming, 74, campaigned on his support for a “pro-Trump agenda.” In one ad, Fleming’s campaign touted his time working in the White House during the first Trump administration, bragged that he “opposes liberal nonsense” and described Fleming as a “MAGA conservative,” using the acronym for Trump’s “Make America Great Again” movement.
Letlow, a 45-year-old former university administrator, was first elected to Congress in 2021. She won a special election to fill a vacancy created when her husband, Luke Letlow, died from Covid-19 in December 2020, weeks after winning the 5th District House seat but before taking office.
Fleming is a former House member who departed in 2016 to make a failed Senate run. He went on to serve in several roles in the Trump administration, ending as assistant to the president for planning and implementation.
Democrats also chose their Senate nominee in a runoff Saturday. Farmer and former state House candidate Jamie Davis defeated Navy veteran and defense contractor Gary Crockett, CNN projects. Davis nearly won the primary outright, with more than 47% of the vote, while Crockett edged out a third candidate, Nick Albares, by fewer than 300 votes out of roughly 345,000 cast.
However, Trump has won Louisiana by more than 18 percentage points three times, and the state is not viewed by Democrats as a target this fall — political realities that all but ensure the winner in Saturday’s GOP runoff will be elected to a full term in November.
This year’s Louisiana primaries are the first since the state scrapped its previous “jungle primary” system. Voters registered with a party can participate only in their party’s primary and runoff, while unaffiliated voters can choose which primary to vote in. However, those unaffiliated voters are required to stick with the same party through the runoff.
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