One thing became clear Tuesday, partway into the only debate in the Republican Senate primary: U.S. Rep. and state Treasurer both want to knock each other out of the race during the first round of voting on May 16.
Letlow and Fleming clashed repeatedly during the 90-minute debate, with each claiming to be the most conservative candidate in the election.
The two Republicans barely mentioned the man they want to unseat — U.S. Sen. — and had to be prodded to criticize him by conservative talk radio show host Moon Griffon, who organized and moderated the debate at his station on KPEL-96.5 in Lafayette.
Cassidy skipped the event because Griffon regularly lambastes him as “Psycho Bill.”
Fleming accused Letlow of distorting his opposition to illegal immigration and carbon capture sequestration and downplaying his ties to President Donald Trump.
“There you go again, Julia,” Fleming said several times, reprising a line that Ronald Reagan made famous in a 1980 nationwide, televised debate with then-President Jimmy Carter.
Letlow said Fleming distorted her opposition to vaccine mandates and to diversity, equity and inclusion policies and didn’t acknowledge that she self-reported her failure to report stock trades on a timely basis as a member of Congress.
“That’s another desperate claim you make,” she said at one point to Fleming.
Letlow also said Fleming hit her with a “low blow” by noting that her fiance, Kevin Ainsworth, promotes carbon capture sequestration companies as a lawyer/lobbyist for the Jones Walker law firm in Baton Rouge.
“That’s where I draw the line, John,” she told Fleming. “I would never bring your wife into this.”
Fleming said his comments were fair game because, in his opinion, Letlow mischaracterized his side work for a Washington, D.C., firm.
Letlow said Fleming lobbies for the McKeon Group, while Fleming said he only acts as an “adviser.”
In an interview after the debate, Fleming said he earns $1,000 per month from McKeon to provide strategic advice and said he is allowed to do this work while serving as Louisian’s treasurer.
Fleming repeatedly said that Gov. Jeff Landry — who has endorsed Letlow — is working behind the scenes to ensure her election.
At one point, Letlow felt compelled to remind Fleming that he is running against her, not the governor.
The fiery accusations that Fleming and Letlow leveled at each other during the debate — and a slew of attack ads by pro-Letlow forces against Fleming — indicate that each candidate wants to eliminate the other from the race after the votes are counted in the Republican primary on May 16.
It appears unlikely that any of the three candidates would receive over 50% of the vote. That would mean the top two finishers would advance to a Republican runoff on June 27.
Cassidy, for his part, told reporters on Monday that Letlow is the front-runner, and his goal is to knock her out.
All of this indicates that Cassidy would rather face Fleming in the June runoff, while Fleming and Letlow would rather face him.
The rules for the Senate election have remained unchanged after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled last week that Louisian’s House map is an unconstitutional racial gerrymander, and the May 16 House elections. Those elections will be held later this year after the state Legislature this month draws a new map for Louisian’s six House districts.
through Saturday in the Senate election — and also for other races, including five constitutional amendments. Voters are reporting that the changes are causing confusion.
A survey conducted by New Orleans pollster Greg Rigamer showed Letlow has opened a lead with 35% of the Senate Republican primary vote, while Fleming and Cassidy were virtually tied at 21%. The poll of 600 likely Republican primary voters was conducted from April 28-30 and paid for by major lobbyist Alton Ashy.
Fleming and Cassidy, however, have each said they have seen polls showing him leading the race.
In an interview the day before the debate, Cassidy said that Griffon “hates” him and that Fleming and Letlow buy favor with the radio host by purchasing ad time on his program.
Griffon mostly played it straight during Tuesday’s debate as he asked questions of the two candidates, who stood side by side at podiums squeezed into a refashioned conference room. Also serving as a moderator was Jeff Beimfohr, an anchor at KTBS-TV in Shreveport.
Beimfohr had hoped to moderate one of the three televised, primetime debates that Cassidy sought during the Republican primary. But Letlow agreed only to the debate during Griffon’s regularly scheduled talk radio program, which included commercial breaks that reduced the actual air time to about 70 minutes. Tuesday’s debate but undoubtedly reached a smaller audience than a nighttime forum.
Letlow came to the debate prepared to note repeatedly that she has Trump’s endorsement.
Fleming came prepared to undermine her point by noting that he served as Trump’s deputy chief of staff during the president’s first term and had a strongly conservative voting record during his eight years in the House.
Fleming said he never had the chance to get Trump’s endorsement because the president’s senior aides kept him from asking for the endorsement. Fleming blamed Landry’s influence with the president. Fleming said he finally got to talk to Trump, and Trump told him that he’s “fantastic.”
Letlow sought to undermine Fleming’s claim by saying it shows that the state treasurer has no stroke with Trump.
“My opponent was running for 13 months and couldn’t get in touch with the president,” Letlow said. “That tells you all you need to know. I can pick up the phone and easily access him because I have his cell number.”
While the debate highlighted their differences, Fleming and Letlow agreed on a number of issues.
They both said they oppose abortion, mandated vaccines and giving more aid to Ukraine in its war with Russia.
In response to a question from Griffon, they both said they would not have voted with Cassidy to convict Trump on impeachment charges of inciting the assault on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
“There was absolutely no reason to believe that Donald Trump was guilty,” Letlow said. “That was the worst mistake that Cassidy could have made. He turned his back on h voters, and they have never forgotten it.”
Fleming said “arguably, the 2020 election was stolen, and President Trump, thank goodness, overcame it and returned to office. We’ve researched Julia Letlow’s statements about this and we can find nothing where she actually defended Trump during Lawfare.”
After the debate, Letlow and Fleming both pronounced themselves satisfied at having the chance to describe their views and contrast their records.