Louisiana Republicans just ended Bill Cassidy's career – and he finished third.
His Senate colleagues had a response this week that no one saw coming.
Find out what they did the moment Trump picked a fighter instead.
Bill Cassidy Lost His Louisiana Senate Primary and Got a Standing Ovation From Senate Republicans
Bill Cassidy voted to convict Donald Trump, backed gun control, voted for massive spending bills, and demanded Trump drop out of the 2024 race after the Biden DOJ indicted him on a case that later collapsed.
Louisiana Republicans remembered all of it.
He finished behind Trump-backed Rep. Julia Letlow and state Treasurer John Fleming – third place, in a state he had won six years earlier without breaking a sweat.
Senate Republicans gathered for their Tuesday lunch and gave him a standing ovation.
The Republican conference just told you exactly whose side they are on – and it is not the voters who just fired their colleague.
Senate Republicans React to Trump Endorsing Ken Paxton Over John Cornyn
The same day Trump endorsed Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton over John Cornyn, Senate Majority Leader John Thune found out through Trump's Truth Social post like everyone else.
Punchbowl News reported Thune went stone-faced walking into the Senate Republican lunch, his exasperation visible enough that reporter Andrew Desiderio noted it read as "pretty deep anger" for a senator known for his composure.
Roger Wicker went stone cold silent for twenty seconds when reporters asked for his reaction.
Lisa Murkowski said she was "supremely disappointed" and declared the endorsement put the Texas seat "in jeopardy."
"How does that help strengthen the president's hand when we lose a state like Texas?" she asked.
Murkowski – who voted to convict Trump at his second impeachment trial and built a Senate career on betraying Republicans – is now whining about another conservative headed to the Senate.
The standing ovation for Cassidy happened in the same building, on the same day.
John Cornyn Refused to Kill the Filibuster and Pass the SAVE America Act
Cornyn spent decades collecting a conservative reputation he spent just as long undermining.
He called conservatives "terrorists."
He backed legislation advancing critical race theory, signaled support for amnesty for illegal aliens, opposed a border wall, co-authored Biden’s gun control bill, and voted for reckless spending bills that buried the country in debt.
In the spring of 2023, he told reporters that President Trump's time had "passed him by" – then endorsed him after the New Hampshire primary when the math made it unavoidable.
Trump cited it directly in his endorsement post: "John was very late in backing me in what turned out to be a Historic Run for the Republican Nomination."
The filibuster fight made the split permanent.
Trump endorsed Paxton in part because Paxton supports eliminating the filibuster and passing the SAVE America Act – the proof-of-citizenship voting bill Thune's conference has delayed and softened for over a year.
Cornyn flipped his support on eliminating the filibuster after it looked like a way to save his political career.
The senators now furious at Trump's endorsement spent months protecting the very procedural rule that lets them kill his agenda without casting a vote against it.
Every Republican Who Voted to Convict Trump Has Now Paid the Price
House Republicans who voted to impeach Trump were wiped out in 2022 – Liz Cheney lost by more than 30 points in Wyoming, Tom Rice lost in South Carolina, Peter Meijer in Michigan, Jaime Herrera Beutler in Washington.
Four of the seven Republican senators who voted to convict Trump quietly chose the exit over the ballot box – Richard Burr, Mitt Romney, Ben Sasse, and Pat Toomey all retired rather than face their own voters.
Cassidy is now the first GOP senator to lose renomination in close to a decade.
Thune, Wicker, and Murkowski watched every step of this and sided with the senators voters rejected.
On May 26, Texas Republicans choose between Paxton and Cornyn.
Thune's conference spent months lobbying Trump to protect a senator who called their voters terrorists and blocked the SAVE America Act.
Trump backed the fighter anyway.
The voters who fired Cassidy and are about to fire Cornyn are not the problem in this party – and the senators performing grief in that Tuesday lunch know it.
Sources:
- Shawn Fleetwood, "RINO Crash Out Over Trump's Paxton Endorsement Shows How Much The GOP Hates Its Voters," The Federalist, May 20, 2026.
- Andrew Desiderio, Senate Republicans reaction thread, Punchbowl News, May 19, 2026.
- Gabby Birenbaum, "Trump endorses Paxton in Texas Senate primary runoff," The Texas Tribune, May 19, 2026.
- Alexander Bolton, "Senate GOP expresses frustration, anger, sadness as Trump snubs Cornyn in Texas," The Hill, May 20, 2026.
- "Sen. Bill Cassidy loses Louisiana primary," Fox News, May 16, 2026.