Bill Cassidy is a lame duck. Louisiana Republicans made that clear on Saturday when they denied him a runoff spot in the GOP Senate primary, ending his twelve-year career before he ever got a chance to campaign for a third term. Apparently, he decided he had nothing left to lose.
Just three days after voters showed him the door, Cassidy sided with Democrats on Tuesday to advance a resolution aimed at stripping President Trump of his war-making authority over Iran.
From colleague Kelly Phares.
Senate Dems have succeeded in overcoming a procedural hurdle allowing an Iran War Powers Resolution to come for a vote in the coming days. This procedural step passed by a vote of 50-47. Senators Cassidy, Collins, Murkowski and Paul were the GOP yes…
— Chad Pergram (@ChadPergram) May 19, 2026
Cassidy joined Sens. Susan Collins (R-ME), Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), and Rand Paul (R-KY) in voting to discharge Sen. Tim Kaine’s (D-VA) Iran war powers resolution from the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. The motion passed 50-47. It was the eighth time Democrats brought a version of this resolution to the floor, and the first time it advanced — and the first time Cassidy voted for any of them.
As RedState reported Saturday, Cassidy failed to finish in the top two in the Louisiana Republican primary. He won’t make the June 27 runoff. Trump-endorsed Rep. Julia Letlow and State Treasurer John Fleming will square off for the nomination. In Louisiana, that’s the ballgame. Cassidy is done.
His collapse traces directly to February 2021, when he was one of seven Senate Republicans to vote to convict Trump after January 6. The Louisiana GOP censured him within days. Trump never forgot it, and when Letlow entered the race on January 20, two days after Trump’s endorsement, the message was unmistakable. Saturday’s primary confirmed it.
Read More: Louisiana Voters Just Ended Bill Cassidy’s Senate Career After Two Terms and One Key Vote
Cassidy kept his war powers vote close to the vest. He declined to say how he would vote when asked about it Monday, then revealed his position at the last moment, a pattern that will be familiar to anyone who watched him navigate the impeachment fallout for five years. The man knows how to sit on a decision until the pressure is gone.
Who wasn’t in the chamber matters just as much. Three Republicans — Sens. John Cornyn (R-TX), Tommy Tuberville (R-AL), and Thom Tillis (R-NC) — did not vote. Their absence handed Democrats their first win on this issue after seven straight failures. Those are three senators who had every reason to show up and kill this thing, and they didn’t (though it does bear noting that Tuesday was the primary election in Alabama; not so for North Carolina or Texas). Make of that what you will, but the resolution advanced for the first time, and their empty seats helped it happen just as much as Cassidy’s yes vote did.
Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY) was quick to claim the scalp:
“Vote by vote, Democrats are breaking through Republicans’ wall of silence on Trump’s illegal war. Today proved our pressure is working: Republicans are starting to crack, and momentum is building to check him. We are not letting up.”
The War Powers Resolution itself is going nowhere. It still needs to clear the final vote in the Senate, then the House and reach Trump’s desk, where he will veto it. There are not enough votes in either chamber to override him. Democrats know this. The exercise is political, not legislative — a pressure campaign designed to put Republicans on the record heading into the midterms. Cassidy, with nothing left to lose, was happy to oblige.
Tuesday’s vote was Cassidy doing what he has done since that impeachment vote — widening the distance between himself and a Republican base that already rendered its verdict. Louisiana spent five years deciding what to do about him. On Saturday, they answered. On Tuesday, so did he.
Editor’s Note: The Democrat Party has never been less popular as voters reject its globalist agenda.
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