Louisiana state Sen. Blake Miguez (R) has launched a major bid difficult Sen. Invoice Cassidy (R-La.) forward of 2026, including to a rising area of Republicans vying to unseat the two-term senator.
Miguez in his launch video on Tuesday declares Cassidy “sucks” and prominently options footage of the GOP senator saying he voted to convict President Trump in 2021. The state lawmaker casts himself as a extra conservative various.
“Would you like a senator may have Trump’s again? A straight shooter who doesn’t flinch when it’s time to combat?” Miguez says within the advert, selecting up a rifle. “I’m you’re man. We’re performed being fooled by weak Republicans.”
“Invoice Cassidy had his shot. He missed. I received’t,” Miguez provides, firing his gun, which units off an explosion within the advert.
A handful of Republicans want to beat Cassidy in subsequent 12 months’s elections; among the many names working, Treasurer John Fleming and Miguez are among the many most notable.
Each Fleming and Miguez have positioned themselves because the Trump-aligned, hardline conservative candidate and each are hammering the Louisiana senator for his vote to convict Trump following the Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol assault — a vulnerability for the senator in his purple state.
The president was finally acquitted within the Senate.
Cassidy, in the meantime, has sought to align himself with Trump, together with helping get some of the president’s more controversial nominees, like Well being and Human Companies Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., confirmed.
He’s additionally aligned himself with Trump’s priorities, suggesting, for instance, that he’s in favor of shutting down the Schooling Division.
Cassidy can also be contending with a distinct major system this time round, the place he’ll need to compete in a Republican major first earlier than the final election; beforehand Senate elections used an open major system the place all candidates working for an workplace ran underneath one poll.
If nobody candidate outright obtained a majority of the vote, the highest two vote-getters would head to a run-off.
Louisiana nonetheless holds a few of its elections utilizing the “jungle” major system whereas different workplaces, together with Senate, undergo a closed major course of.
A number of hardline candidates, nevertheless, may gain advantage Cassidy, splitting the vote amongst extra conservative voters and providing Cassidy a probably simpler path to successful the GOP major.