State Sen. Blake Miguez announces campaign for Cassidy’s U.S. Senate seat

State Sen. Blake Miguez, R-New Iberia, officially launched his bid to unseat fellow Republican U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy next year, taking aim at Cassidy’s vote to convict President Donald Trump in an impeachment trial after the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection attempt at the U.S. Capitol. 

“I’m running for the U.S. Senate because Bill Cassidy sucks,” Miguez said in a video announcing his campaign. “Phony politicians like Bill Cassidy can’t shoot straight, but I can.” 

“[Cassidy is ] a proven conservative fighting alongside President Trump to secure our southern border, unleash American energy, and put America First,” Cassidy spokeswoman Ashley Bosch said in a statement to the Illuminator. “Senator Cassidy is fighting to protect our values and delivering real results for Louisiana.”

Miguez, a champion competitive sharpshooter and staunch 2nd Amendment advocate, heavily features guns in his video. He brandishes a firearm to literally take aim at targets bearing the words “Marxism,” “taxes” and “food dyes,” the latter a reference to legislation he’s sponsored to regulate food dyes and other additives that have fallen out of favor with conservative Republicans. 

Also targeted is “trans crap,” seemingly a reference to anti-transgender legislation Miguez has supported. 

Miguez has served in the Louisiana Senate since 2024. Before that, he served three terms in the state house. His legislative focuses have been staples of conservative politics, including firearm legislation. Miguez sponsored a measure that allows individuals to carry concealed handguns without a license.  

Cassidy’s support for Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Trump’s pick for secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, is widely seen as an effort to curry favor with Trump and his base. Cassidy is a medical doctor who has vocalized his disagreement with Kennedy’s anti-vaccine conspiracy theories. 

Cassidy is already facing an announced challenge from GOP Treasurer John Fleming, who previously worked in Trump’s first administration. Fleming ran unsuccessfully for U.S. Senate in 2016. Prior to that, he was a congressman representing the district currently U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson currently holds. 

Several lesser-known candidates are also seeking to unseat Cassidy. They include Sammy Wyatt, a university administrator who is at odds with one of Gov. Jeff Landry’s appointees to the LSU Board of Supervisors.

Congresswoman Julia Letlow, R-Start, is also rumored to be considering running against Cassidy, though she is also a rumored candidate to be the next president of LSU. 

What’s different about the 2026 election is the introduction of closed primaries. 

Gov. Jeff Landry supported legislation in 2024 to close Louisiana’s relatively unusual open “jungle” primaries, in which all candidates face each other in an initial election, and the top two vote-getters — assuming no candidate gets more than 50% of the vote — proceed to a runoff the following month. 

Louisiana’s new closed primaries apply to seats in Congress and on the Louisiana Supreme Court, Public Service Commission and Board of Elementary and Secondary Education. They will be held in March of each election year, with the majority vote-getter from each party advancing to a fall election. If no candidate receives more than 50% of the vote in March, a second party primary will be held with the top two candidates. 

In states with closed primaries, voters tend to be more polarized than in the general election, meaning a conservative challenger could have a better chance in unseating their more moderate intraparty rival.