President Donald Trump’s “huge impact” on Republican politics is alive and well, Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., said Sunday, pointing to the president’s endorsement that helped shake up a Louisiana Senate race and unseat incumbent Sen. Bill Cassidy.
“Unless you’re God’s perfect idiot, the result was predictable,” Kennedy told “The Sunday Briefing.”
“The polls have shown for well over a year that Senator Cassidy was in trouble, [and] I think the president’s endorsement of Congresswoman [Julia] Letlow was sort of the icing on the cake. Bill knew that, but he decided to run anyway, and I respect that,” he added.
Letlow and Louisiana Treasurer John Fleming topped Cassidy in Saturday’s GOP primary, according to The Associated Press.
AFTER INDIANA PURGE, TRUMP SETS SIGHTS ON LOUISIANA’S BILL CASSIDY
Letlow walked away with roughly 45% of the vote. Fleming followed at approximately 28% and Cassidy came in third at just under 25%.
Letlow, who has represented the state’s fifth district since 2021, will advance to a runoff against Fleming since neither candidate cracked 50% of the vote.
The victor will face off against the winner of the Democratic runoff in November.
Cassidy, who voted to convict Trump in his impeachment trial over five years ago, became the president’s target on Saturday morning, as he argued the senator is “a disloyal disaster” and “a sleazebag, a terrible guy, who is BAD FOR LOUISIANA.”
TRUMP TURNS SIGHTS ON BILL CASSIDY, THOMAS MASSIE AFTER DECISIVE INDIANA PRIMARY VICTORIES
After Cassidy was defeated, Trump returned to social media to revel in the senator’s ouster, saying “it’s nice to see that his political career is OVER!”
In his concession speech to voters, Cassidy appeared to make a thinly veiled jab at the president.
“When you participate in democracy, sometimes it doesn’t turn out the way you want it to, but you don’t pout, you don’t whine. You don’t claim the election was stolen… You don’t manufacture some excuse,” he said.
“You thank the voters for the privilege of representing the state or the country for as long as you’ve had that privilege. And that’s what I’m doing right now.”
Though Trump’s endorsement of Letlow is among the reasons speculated for her strong performance, Kennedy highlighted another reason voters may have made their choices.
“My people were also kind of angry about the election. We’ve always had… open primaries, and our legislature went to closed primaries and a lot of voters went to the polls this time and they weren’t allowed to vote for the candidate of their choice. They had to pick one of the two primaries to vote in, and there was a little bit of confusion at the election because the legislature postponed our congressional elections but went forward with the Senate election,” he said.
“President Trump’s endorsement had a huge, huge impact. There’s no question about that, but there were other factors and, as I said, Bill’s been in trouble politically for over a year, and he knew that, and I don’t think anybody was especially surprised, especially after President Trump weighed in.”
Fox News’ Paul Steinhauser contributed to this report.
