Liz Cheney lost her Wyoming seat by 37 points after she voted to impeach Trump.
Now Bill Cassidy thought he was going to get a different result.
He was wrong – and the Republican Party just told him so in the most direct way possible.
The Phone Call That May End Bill Cassidy's Senate Career
Cassidy got on the phone with NRSC Executive Director Jennifer DeCasper and demanded the Senate Republicans' campaign arm spend more money on his behalf.
DeCasper reportedly responded by reading him a profanity-laced version of the riot act.
She told the Louisiana senator he shouldn't have voted to convict Donald Trump. Multiple sources confirmed the exchange to Punchbowl News.
Here is what makes that moment remarkable.
Cassidy and his outside groups entered 2026 holding a combined $26 million war chest. His campaign and super PAC have already put more than $14 million into Louisiana airwaves attacking his primary opponents. Senate Majority Leader John Thune personally headlined a fundraiser in Baton Rouge in January that brought in $652,000. The NRSC cut video ads for him. Tim Scott endorsed him.
None of that was enough for Bill Cassidy.
He wanted more – and the Republican establishment finally stopped pretending the problem was money.
What $26 Million Cannot Buy in the Louisiana Senate Primary
The impeachment vote was never going to be forgotten.
In February 2021, Cassidy voted to convict Trump and then went on television to explain it. He didn't just cast a vote.
He declared Trump guilty.
In 2023, he called for Trump to drop out of the presidential race entirely.
Cassidy told reporters Trump couldn't win another general election and said he wouldn't support him in 2024.
The Louisiana Republican Party censured him within hours. The East Baton Rouge Parish Republican Party declared Cassidy "an object of shame" – an action it had never taken before in its history. LAGOP secretary Mike Bayham put it simply: "Bill Cassidy is a senator without a party as of today."
That was five years ago. Bayham is watching this race as a neutral observer now – and he says the prediction held.
Cassidy has spent years running from that vote. His current ads portray him as close to Trump. Republican voters in Louisiana aren't buying it, and they're not buying it with $14 million flooding their televisions.
The three most recent independent polls all show Cassidy fighting for his political life. A Fabrizio, Lee and Associates survey put him at 26% – statistically tied with Trump-endorsed Julia Letlow at 27% – with Fleming at 19%. An American Pulse Research poll showed Cassidy in third place at 21%, with Letlow at 31% and Fleming at 25%. A Fleming internal poll put the incumbent at 22%.
Republican insiders in Louisiana now believe that in any head-to-head runoff matchup, either Letlow or Fleming beats Cassidy.
The White House Already Moved On
The most telling detail in the Punchbowl report isn't the profane phone call.
It's this: the White House doesn't care which candidate beats Cassidy.
"They simply want Cassidy out of the Senate," Punchbowl reported. "They don't care if it's Letlow or Fleming who does that."
Trump endorsed Letlow in January. Fleming – one of the founding members of the House Freedom Caucus – turned down White House pressure to clear the field for her twice. He told Punchbowl that two high-level White House contacts reached out at the start of the year asking what it would take to get him to step aside. He said no both times.
The White House let him stay in anyway.
That tells you everything about how they view Cassidy. He's not a variable to be managed. He's a problem to be solved – and either of his opponents solves it.
Louisiana changed its election rules in 2024, switching from a jungle primary back to closed partisan primaries. Under the old system, liberal and moderate voters could cross over and keep Cassidy competitive. Those voters are gone now. Only Republican primary voters decide his fate – the same voters who watched him declare Trump guilty on national television.
Liz Cheney made the same calculation Cassidy made. She believed her record would protect her from a base that turned on her over one vote. She lost by 37 points.
Cassidy watched that happen and thought he could spend his way to a different result.
The NRSC told him otherwise.
Sources:
- Ally Mutnick, John Bresnahan, Jake Sherman, "Louisiana Senate GOP primary gets loopy," Punchbowl News, April 10, 2026.
- Andrew Court, "Trump-Impeaching GOP Senator Reportedly Melted Down Over Not Getting Enough Money," Daily Caller, April 10, 2026.
- "Bill Cassidy Risks Missing Louisiana Senate Runoff," Breitbart, April 10, 2026.
- "2026 United States Senate election in Louisiana," Ballotpedia, accessed April 14, 2026.
