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Louisiana voters are set to cast ballots Saturday in primaries across multiple offices, with the contest for U.S. Senate emerging as the key race. The Associated Press’s election decision notes say Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy is seeking a third term but must first win a GOP primary field that includes state Treasurer John Fleming and U.S. Rep. Julia Letlow, the latter of whom Trump endorsed in January.
AP framed the Senate primary as part of Trump’s broader effort to seek political payback from figures he views as disloyal, and said Cassidy has been near the top of that list since his vote more than five years ago to convict Trump in his second impeachment trial following the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. Trump was acquitted.
The AP decision notes also said Democrats are not targeting Louisiana as part of their effort to retake the Senate. It added that if Cassidy loses the Republican primary, the result likely sets up a Senate GOP caucus even more unified behind Trump.
Beyond the Senate race, the Saturday ballots include primary contests for state Supreme Court, the Public Service Commission and a state school board, along with five statewide constitutional amendments. The notes described the election as “revamped and stripped-down,” and said Louisiana’s process for Saturday includes decisions about which party’s voters can participate in each primary.
A major change for this election is how party primaries are organized. In another departure from earlier Louisiana primaries, the decision notes said contenders in Saturday’s contests will run in separate party primaries rather than a single “jungle primary” where all candidates appear on the same ballot. State lawmakers adopted the new system in 2024 for certain offices, but the law did not take effect until 2026.
The decision notes said the U.S. House contests were originally scheduled to use the new system as well, but that state Republicans on Thursday adopted legislation to reinstate the jungle primary for U.S. House races. It also said that, because the U.S. Supreme Court struck down Louisiana’s current congressional map—containing a majority-Black district favoring Democrats—Louisiana suspended congressional primaries earlier, and that U.S. House races will still appear on ballots Saturday but any votes cast in those contests will not be counted.
AP also laid out practical details voters and observers may need as results roll in. Polls close at 8 p.m. local time, or 9 p.m. ET. It said registered party members may vote only in their own party’s primary—so Democrats cannot vote in the Republican primary and vice versa—while independent or unaffiliated voters can vote in either primary, and voters registered with other parties may vote only on nonpartisan contests.
The notes described the size and behavior of Louisiana’s electorate under the new system, using 2024 primary totals for context. AP said that as of May 1 there were about 3 million registered voters, including about 1.1 million registered Democrats and about 1.1 million registered Republicans, with registered Democrats at a slight advantage, and about 813,000 not registered with any party. It said each primary represented about 6% of registered voters in 2024, with about 192,000 votes in the Republican primary and about 167,000 in the Democratic contest, and that about 41% of the Republican vote and about 45% of the Democratic vote in 2024 was cast before primary day.
For early and absentee voting, AP said that as of Thursday about 255,000 ballots had already been cast in Saturday’s election, with about 44% from Democrats and about 41% from Republicans. It said election results from early and absentee voting are usually released by each parish in the first vote update, separately from in-person Election Day totals.
On election-night reporting and follow-through, the AP decision notes said the outlet will provide results and declare winners in contested primaries for U.S. Senate, state Supreme Court, the Public Service Commission and the state school board, as well as for five statewide ballot measures. It said AP does not make projections and will declare a winner only when it determines there is no scenario that would allow a trailing candidate to close the gap, while continuing to cover any newsworthy developments such as concessions or declarations of victory if a race has not been called.
The notes added that Louisiana has no automatic recounts, but a candidate may request and pay for a recount of absentee and early votes. AP said it may declare a winner in a race subject to a recount if it can determine the lead is too large for a recount or legal challenge to change the outcome, and it spelled out the timeline going forward: 42 days until the June 27 primary runoff if needed, 171 days until the Nov. 3 general election, and 210 days until the Dec. 12 runoff.
As the state moves into the vote-counting phase, the AP election team’s decision notes position Cassidy’s fate in the GOP primary as the race to watch while voters also weigh candidates and ballot measures across multiple state-level offices and constitutional proposals.