Louisiana Sen. Bill Cassidy in February 2025 weighed attainable political peril towards an extended profession in drugs, finally casting the critical vote to verify identified vaccine skeptic Robert F. Kennedy as the president’s Health and Human Services secretary.
But the selection hasn’t assured the senator’s political future. Now the incumbent who made a profession out of advocating for vaccines is ensnared in a bitter major election again residence — with out President Donald Trump’s assist. And as he fights for his political life, he should resolve whether or not to verify a Kennedy ally, Casey Means, to function Trump’s surgeon basic.
The saga of whether or not to schedule the vote and push for Means’ nomination regardless of headwinds is placing Cassidy again in the highlight as he faces off in a three-way major towards Rep. Julia Letlow, who has been endorsed by the president and embraced by the “Make America Healthy Again” motion, and John Fleming, a state treasurer who has tried to determine himself as a conservative various in the race.
Sources near the course of concede that Means’ nomination doesn’t seem like trending in the proper course and that could be no matter how Cassidy casts his vote.
Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski, a member of Cassidy’s Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, advised NCS final week that she’s “not enthusiastic about her” when requested whether or not she would assist Means. And Sen. Susan Collins, a Republican from Maine who’s locked in a tricky reelection fight of her personal, advised NCS on Thursday that she was nonetheless reviewing written questions Means had submitted.
The lack of only a single GOP vote in the committee may kill Means’ nomination if Democrats are unified towards her. And as the chairman of the committee and already a prime goal of the president’s, it’s simply the newest headache for Cassidy.
“The best-case scenario for Cassidy is that she withdraws,” mentioned Robert Hogan, a professor of political science at Louisiana State University. “I don’t think he has much to gain by opposing it or championing it. He has used all his other signals and it hasn’t moved people.”
NCS has reached out to the senator’s workplace for remark.
In an interview with NCS earlier this month, Cassidy declined to remark on whether or not Means had been clear sufficient about her place on vaccines or if he was ready to again her nomination. “I’m not prepared yet to comment on the hearing yesterday,” he mentioned.
He has not scheduled a committee vote on her nomination.
For the final yr, Cassidy has gone out of his approach to attempt to ingratiate himself with the president and his voters. Cassidy mentioned publicly as lately as November that he believed the president was going to remain impartial in the race earlier than Trump ultimately endorsed Letlow.
Cassidy has been a fierce supporter of the president’s prime precedence, the “SAVE America Act,” a invoice that imposes strict voter ID and proof-of-citizenship necessities for US voters. In the final yr, he has voted “yes” on all of Trump’s Cabinet nominees and he has been cautious when pressed on whether or not he regrets his vote on RFK Jr.
“Life is lived forward. What I have to do is do my best to reassure the American people that vaccines are safe, that the president believes in vaccines,” Cassidy told Punchbowl News final November.
Cassidy’s process to win over Trump voters has turn into extra important now that Louisiana has moved from an all-party major to a extra conventional partisan nominating system the place voters should be both registered Republican or no social gathering to forged ballots. The major is scheduled for May 16 and if no candidate will get 50% of the vote, the race might be pressured to a June runoff.
Cassidy, who spent his profession as a physician serving to vaccinate Louisianans, forged the figuring out vote in committee to approve Kennedy, who went on to vary long-established suggestions for childhood vaccines. But whether or not Cassidy will now double down and again Means is another query.
Means underwent a tumultuous affirmation listening to that noticed Cassidy press on her vaccine efficacy views and left some GOP senators with questions on her health for the publish.
“I wanted to back up and broadly just reassure you that this is not an issue that I intend to complicate, or bring an agenda on vaccines. This is not the core of my issue,” Means advised Cassidy final month.
Following the listening to, Cassidy advised NCS that general his view of vaccines is “there are consequences of having an uncertain message on something which is life-saving.”
Cassidy’s reluctance to return out in assist for Means and schedule the vote for her affirmation has turn into a key assault from Letlow, who has aligned herself intently with the MAHA motion in the state and has earned the backing of the chief political motion committee aligned with MAHA.
“Senator Cassidy chairs the committee overseeing her nomination, yet he refuses to say where he stands on President Trump’s nominee. Louisiana deserves a senator who stands with President Trump and who helps move his nominees forward,” Letlow mentioned in a press release. “A vote against Casey Means is a vote against Making American Health Again.”
Letlow has introduced on vaccine skeptic and Kennedy ally, former Louisiana surgeon basic Ralph Abraham to be her marketing campaign chair this month.
While the difficulty of Means’ nomination could also be prime of thoughts in Washington, Fleming, the different GOP candidate in the race, advised NCS in a telephone interview that the difficulty isn’t but taking part in a significant position in the marketing campaign again residence.
“It is definitely a movement. I have not seen any polling to see how big of an impact it has, to be honest with you. You see a fair amount on social media discussions and so forth. But to be honest with you in terms of discussions between candidates and in ads, you don’t really see anything mentioned about MAHA,” Fleming advised NCS.
Still, Cassidy’s is one in all a number of midterm races that the MAHA motion has promised to sway.
MAHA Action, which holds weekly rallying requires its supporters, has regularly promised that the motion could be the decisive votes in midterms races. And with the Means vote hanging in the stability, MAHA Action president Tony Lyons and different MAHA leaders are urging voters to press Murkowski and Collins.
“The establishment says she’s too radical. Elements of the right say she’s not radical enough,” Robert Malone, a Kennedy-appointed vaccine adviser and frequent speaker on the weekly MAHA Action conferences, mentioned throughout a name final week. “That’s the signature of someone who cannot be captured by any faction. That is exactly what this moment calls for.”
For Cassidy, the Means nomination could also be a blip on the political radar that does little to assist him even when he muscled it by way of or got here out in assist of her. He already misplaced Trump’s endorsement after he voted to question the president over the January 6, 2021, Capitol assault and later advised he ought to drop his reelection bid.
“Cassidy is flying all the flags and sending any signals he can in hopes he can be forgiven for committing the cardinal sin and crossing the president,” Hogan, the LSU professor, mentioned. “At this point, I don’t think it is going to matter very much.”