2026-06-27T10:30:26.903Z / https://www.cnn.com/2026/06/27/politics/louisiana-senate-republican-runoff-trump-letlow-fleming-cassidy
路易斯安那州的共和党选民已经否决了一名与总统唐纳德·特朗普作对的在任参议员。在周六的初选中，他们将决定是否追随特朗普的选择新候选人。
获得特朗普背书的联邦众议员朱莉娅·莱特洛将与州财政部长约翰·弗莱明展开角逐，这场对决几乎注定将决定这个深红州的下一任联邦参议员人选。
两人将竞争接替比尔·卡西迪参议员的席位，这位连任两届的共和党人在5月16日的初选中位列第三。与得克萨斯州联邦参议员约翰·康恩一道，卡西迪是今年春季初选中被特朗普反对后罢免的两名共和党在任议员之一。特朗普在路易斯安那州发起报复行动，源于卡西迪在2021年第二次弹劾审判中投下了定罪特朗普的一票。
在初选中，莱特洛以近45%的支持率获得最多选票，紧随其后的弗莱明得票率为28%，卡西迪的得票率接近25%。由于没有候选人获得多数票，得票前两名的候选人进入决选。
周六的选举是对特朗普掌控共和党势力的最新考验。此次中期选举初选季伊始，特朗普便取得了一系列亮眼的胜利——包括罢免卡西迪、康恩以及另一位党内对手肯塔基州联邦众议员托马斯·马西，同时击败了拒绝他有关重新划分选区呼吁的印第安纳州州参议员。
但最近几周，共和党选民却冷落了特朗普——在爱荷华州和佐治亚州的州长共和党初选中，他们没有选择特朗普支持的候选人。他在南卡罗来纳州支持的候选人也在周二的初选决选前夕濒临败选，因此特朗普为了挽回颜面，在最后时刻也背书了另一位候选人、州总检察长艾伦·威尔逊，后者最终以超过30个百分点的优势获胜。
特朗普于周四晚间为莱特洛举办了电话集会。他表示，自己见证了莱特洛“在最高层面经受了考验”，并且“从一开始就是你们伟大州民的无畏倡导者”。
这位总统称赞莱特洛去年投票支持了他的大规模税收和支出法案，赞扬她对其移民执法行动的支持，并表示她将支持他的选举改革法案，该法案将广泛禁止邮寄投票、要求出示选民身份证件等。
“她棒极了。她会做得非常出色。她是一名战士，”特朗普在这场持续约六分钟的集会中说道。
两党候选人几乎没有分歧
尽管获得了特朗普的背书，但这场共和党初选的意识形态差异相对较小。
74岁的弗莱明以支持“亲特朗普议程”为竞选纲领。在一则广告中，弗莱明的竞选团队夸赞他在特朗普首届政府期间在白宫工作的经历，吹嘘他“反对自由主义胡言乱语”，并将弗莱明描述为一名“MAGA保守派”——即特朗普“让美国再次伟大”运动的首字母缩写。
45岁的莱特洛曾是大学行政人员，2021年首次当选联邦众议员。她在2020年12月丈夫卢克·莱特洛因新冠去世后赢得了一场特别选举，填补了其丈夫的空缺——卢克在2020年11月赢得了第五选区联邦众议员席位，但尚未就职便离世。
弗莱明曾是联邦众议员，2016年离任后竞选参议员失败。此后他在特朗普政府中担任多个职务，最终担任总统规划与实施助理。
周六决选的一个关键因素可能是该州三个人口最多的教区——奥尔良、东巴吞鲁日和杰斐逊——的选民投票情况。在5月16日的初选中，卡西迪在这三个教区均为得票最高的候选人。
民主党也将在周六的决选中选出联邦参议员候选人。两位最终候选人分别是农民、前州众议院候选人杰米·戴维斯，以及海军退伍军人、国防承包商加里·克罗克特。戴维斯以超过47%的得票率险些直接赢得初选，而克罗克特在约34.5万张选票中以不到300票的优势击败第三名候选人尼克·阿尔巴雷斯。
不过，特朗普曾三次以超过18个百分点的优势赢得路易斯安那州，且民主党并未将该州视为今年秋季的竞选目标——这一政治现实几乎可以确保，周六共和党决选的获胜者将在11月的选举中顺利当选完整任期。
今年的路易斯安那州初选是该州废除此前“丛林初选”制度后的首次初选。登记为某一党派的选民只能参与本党派的初选和决选，而无党派选民可以选择参与哪个党派的初选，但这些无党派选民在决选阶段必须固定选择同一党派。
After ousting Bill Cassidy, Donald Trump faces fresh test of his sway with GOP voters in Louisiana’s Senate runoff
2026-06-27T10:30:26.903Z / https://www.cnn.com/2026/06/27/politics/louisiana-senate-republican-runoff-trump-letlow-fleming-cassidy
Louisiana Republican voters already rejected an incumbent senator who was crossways with President Donald Trump. In a primary runoff on Saturday, they’ll decide whether to follow Trump’s lead in choosing a new nominee.
Rep. Julia Letlow, who is endorsed by Trump, faces state Treasurer John Fleming in a contest that is all but certain to determine the next senator in the deep-red state.
They are 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 is 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 intra-party 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 Tuesday’s primary runoff, so Trump — in a last-minute, face-saving move — also endorsed the other candidate, state Attorney General Alan Wilson, who would go on to win by more than 30 points.
Trump on Thursday night held a telephone rally for Letlow. He said he has seen Letlow “tested at the highest level” and 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.
Little daylight between the candidates
Despite Trump’s endorsement, the ideological differences in the GOP race are relatively scant.
Fleming, 74, has campaigned on his support for a “pro-Trump agenda.” In one ad, Fleming’s campaign touts his time working in the White House during the first Trump administration, brags that he “opposes liberal nonsense” and describes 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.
A key factor in Saturday’s runoff could be how voters in the state’s three most populous parishes — Orleans, East Baton Rouge and Jefferson — vote. In the May 16 primary, Cassidy was the top vote-getter in all three.
Democrats are also choosing their Senate nominee in a runoff Saturday. The two finalists are farmer and former state House candidate Jamie Davis and Navy veteran and defense contractor Gary Crockett. 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 assure 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 only participate 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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