Republican Senator Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, who lost his party’s primary on Saturday after former President Donald Trump endorsed one of his challengers, returned to the Capitol on Monday evening with a message: he has no regrets.
“I voted to uphold the Constitution. It may have cost me my seat, but who cares?” Cassidy told reporters gathered outside the Senate chamber. “I had the privilege of voting to uphold the Constitution, isn’t that a great thing?”
Cassidy, a physician and two-term senator, was one of seven Republicans who voted to convict Trump in the Senate impeachment trial in February 2021, a week after a mob of Trump supporters stormed the Capitol. The vote became a defining mark on his career in deep-red Louisiana, where Trump remains overwhelmingly popular.
In the years since, Cassidy tried repeatedly to square that vote with his conservative credentials. He backed Trump’s policy agenda, avoided overt criticism of the former president, and frequently declined to answer questions from reporters in Capitol hallways about the impeachment. His aides at times physically blocked reporters from approaching him.
Only one of the seven Republican senators who voted to convict has survived reelection since: Senator Susan Collins of Maine won in 2020. Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska lost her primary in 2022 after Trump campaigned against her. Cassidy’s loss further illustrates the former president’s grip on party primaries.
Now, as his term winds down at the end of the year, Cassidy has shed the caution. “I feel great,” he said. He described the vote as “momentous,” a word he used to underscore the constitutional weight of the moment.