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Senator Bill Cassidy of Louisiana on Saturday lost his Republican primary and the chance to seek a third term, after President Trump targeted him for defeat in retaliation for voting to convict him in his impeachment trial five years ago.<\/p>\n
In a result that underscored the durability of Mr. Trump\u2019s grip on his party, Representative Julia Letlow, the president\u2019s chosen candidate, finished well ahead, drawing about 45 percent of the vote. John Fleming, the state treasurer and a former Trump administration official, edged out Mr. Cassidy to finish second, with about 28 percent of the vote.<\/p>\n
Both Ms. Letlow and Mr. Fleming will advance to a runoff on June 27, according to The Associated Press.<\/p>\n
Neither secured a majority of votes. But Mr. Cassidy, who voted to remove Mr. Trump in 2021 for inciting insurrection and has clashed with the Make America Healthy Again movement over vaccines, could not even secure enough support in his state to stay in the race, finishing with around 25 percent of the vote.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
After the race was called, Mr. Trump celebrated in a social media post, writing that Mr. Cassidy\u2019s \u201cdisloyalty to the man who got him elected is now a part of legend, and it\u2019s nice to see that his political career is OVER!\u201d<\/p>\n
Mr. Cassidy\u2019s defeat was the latest victory in Mr. Trump\u2019s campaign of political retribution against Republicans who have defied him. This month, the president and his political operation successfully backed challengers to Indiana lawmakers<\/a> who rejected his demands on redistricting. On Tuesday, he will try to unseat Representative Thomas Massie<\/a>, a Kentucky libertarian who is Mr. Trump\u2019s most vocal Republican critic in the House.<\/p>\n Even as a two-term incumbent with a powerful committee chairmanship and millions of dollars in his campaign war chest, Mr. Cassidy was not able to overcome attacks from Mr. Trump and others in his party.<\/p>\n In his concession speech, Mr. Cassidy, who shied away from directly criticizing the president while running for re-election, took thinly veiled swipes at Mr. Trump and his repeated false claims of election rigging.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen you participate in democracy, sometimes it doesn\u2019t turn out the way you want it to,\u201d he told dozens of supporters in Baton Rouge. \u201cBut you don\u2019t pout. You don\u2019t whine. You don\u2019t claim that an election was stolen from you.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Without naming Mr. Trump, Mr. Cassidy expressed his view that America\u2019s leaders should be focused not on \u201cone individual\u201d who demanded absolute loyalty but rather on the general welfare of the public.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd if someone doesn\u2019t understand that and attempts to control others through using the levers of power, they\u2019re about serving themselves,\u201d he said. \u201cThey\u2019re not about serving us. And that person is not qualified to be a leader.\u201d<\/p>\n Mr. Cassidy\u2019s impeachment vote opened what turned out to be an irreparable rupture between the president and Mr. Cassidy<\/a>, which extended to many of his constituents back home. The state Republican Party censured him, and Mr. Trump has spent the years since blasting Mr. Cassidy and vowing to oust him.<\/p>\n Mr. Cassidy took steps to try and repair his relationship with the president, and his voting record during Mr. Trump\u2019s second term has hewed largely to Mr. Trump\u2019s priorities.<\/p>\n In a notable attempt at rapprochement, Mr. Cassidy, a gastroenterologist and strong proponent of vaccines who leads the Senate health committee, reluctantly backed Mr. Trump\u2019s choice for health secretary, the vaccine skeptic Robert F. Kennedy Jr.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n But the move failed to quell Mr. Trump\u2019s anger, and the uneasy embrace did not create a lasting alliance between Mr. Cassidy and Mr. Kennedy, who enjoys backing from a powerful movement that has become a potent piece of Mr. Trump\u2019s coalition and invested heavily in beating Mr. Cassidy.<\/p>\n Mr. Cassidy\u2019s decision on Mr. Kennedy also may have cost him crucial support with independent voters and centrists who might otherwise have crossed party lines to vote for him. Louisiana had also changed its election law to hold closed primaries<\/a>, diminishing Mr. Cassidy\u2019s potential base of support outside of solidly Republican voters.<\/p>\n The change was championed by Gov. Jeff Landry, a Republican who endorsed Ms. Letlow. Mr. Cassidy\u2019s campaign accused him of engineering it to benefit her.<\/p>\n