The Scoop
Republican senators are moving quickly to get behind Rep. Julia Letlow, President Donald Trump’s pick in the Louisiana Senate runoff.
Five GOP senators are backing Letlow in her runoff against Louisiana Treasurer John Fleming, a founding member of the House’s conservative Freedom Caucus, according to details first shared with Semafor. Sens. Tim Sheehy of Montana, Katie Britt of Alabama, Jim Banks of Indiana, Bernie Moreno of Ohio, and Rick Scott of Florida are all endorsing Letlow after she received nearly 45 percent of the vote on Saturday.
Letlow said her endorsers are “fighting every day to help President Trump deliver on the America First agenda, and I would be proud to stand alongside them in the United States Senate.” Her runoff race against Fleming is on June 27.
It’s a sign that the dust is settling from Letlow’s defeat of their colleague, Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La. Britt, Moreno and Banks are all vice chairs at the Senate Republican campaign arm, Moreno is running to chair it for the 2028 cycle, and Scott ran it in 2022 — while Sheehy is a close Trump ally.
Their support for Letlow is both an attempt to help her decisively end the runoff and a sign that Republicans see her as favored over Fleming. House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., also endorsed Letlow this week.
Before Letlow and Fleming edged out Cassidy on Saturday, most Senate Republicans had treated the race gingerly, declining to take sides as Cassidy fought an uphill battle against Trump with backing from Senate Majority Leader John Thune and the National Republican Senatorial Committee.
In statements, her new endorsers said she would align with Trump’s “America First agenda.”
Notable
- By purging Cassidy and other incumbent Republicans seen as insufficiently loyal in the past, Trump is also creating new problems for his party, as we noted on Monday. Cassidy has already taken several positions contra Trump this week.