The power of President Trump's endorsements in Republican nomination races faces its latest test this Saturday in Louisiana's primary runoff elections for the U.S. Senate.
Republican voters in the solidly red Gulf Coast state will choose between Rep. Julia Letlow and state Treasurer John Fleming for the now open seat, which was vacated by Sen. Bill Cassidy, a long-time Trump target.
A Letlow victory would be another victory for Trump as he works to fill the halls of Congress with loyal lawmakers for his final two years in the White House, but a win by Fleming would be the third high-profile endorsement setback for Trump in this spring's Republican primaries.
In the March primary, Letlow grabbed 45% of the vote, with Fleming at roughly 28% and Cassidy at just under 25%. Since no candidate cracked 50% of the vote, Letlow and Fleming advanced to the runoff for the Republican nomination, and Cassidy became the first elected Republican senator to lose renomination since Sen. Richard Lugar of Indiana in 2012.
The stakes are high for Trump, who celebrated Cassidy's defeat with a social media post saying, "it’s nice to see that his political career is OVER!" Cassidy, in a speech to supporters after conceding, took a jab at Trump, saying, "When you participate in democracy, sometimes it doesn't turn out the way you want it to... You don't pout, you don't whine. You don't claim the election was stolen… You don't manufacture some excuse."
The GOP nominee will be considered the clear frontrunner in the midterm election against either farmer Jamie Davis or Navy veteran Gary Crockett, who are facing off in the Democratic Senate runoff.
The brute force of the president's endorsement power has been on display in GOP primaries over the past two months, with his candidates ousting incumbents he targeted in showdowns in Indiana, Kentucky, and Texas, as well as the Louisiana primary.
However, Trump's endorsement streak in statewide and congressional Republican primaries was snapped a few weeks ago when his last-minute endorsement of Republican Rep. Randy Feenstra of Iowa in the race to succeed retiring GOP Gov. Kim Reynolds wasn't enough to propel the three-term congressman to victory.
Feenstra was narrowly edged by Zach Lahn, a businessman, farmer, and former political strategist backed by the political wings of MAHA and Turning Point USA.
Trump rebounded three weeks ago in South Carolina, as Trump-backed Lt. Gov. Pam Evette finished first in the GOP gubernatorial primary and longtime Trump ally Sen. Lindsey Graham won a majority of the vote in the Republican Senate primary, and avoided a runoff.
Graham, who was endorsed by Trump, was facing primary challenges from five candidates, including conservative businessman Mark Lynch, who took aim at the senator over his support for the war in Iran.
Two weeks ago, Trump-backed candidates won two of the three top races in Georgia and Alabama, with the one setback coming against a billionaire businessman who shelled out over $100 million of his own money to boost his campaign.
Rep. Barry Moore, a House Freedom Caucus member and longtime Trump supporter who was endorsed by the president, comfortably defeated rival Jared Hudson, a former Navy SEAL sniper who was supported by some top names on the right, in solidly red Alabama's GOP Senate runoff.
In battleground Georgia's Republican Senate runoff, an 11th-hour endorsement by Trump helped boost Rep. Mike Collins, a MAGA champion, to victory over former college football coach Derek Dooley, who was backed by popular conservative Gov. Brian Kemp.
Collins will face Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff in the general election in a race that's among a handful that will likely decide if the GOP holds its slim majority in the chamber in the midterms.
But in Georgia's GOP gubernatorial runoff, the candidate Trump backed, Lt. Gov. Burt Jones, who was also endorsed by Kemp this past weekend, was defeated by billionaire businessman Rick Jackson, who ran as an outsider.
On Tuesday, Trump-backed first-time candidate Anthony Constantino, a businessman and former boxer, defeated Robert Smullen, a retired Marine Corps colonel and New York assemblyman who had the backing of the state party, in the upstate New York race to succeed retiring GOP Rep. Elise Stefanik.
Meanwhile, in South Carolina's Republican gubernatorial runoff, Trump couldn't lose, as he gave a last-minute endorsement to state Attorney General Alan Wilson, who ended up winning the showdown in a landslide.
