BATON ROUGE — U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy fought for his political life Saturday in a Republican primary set up to punish him for his vote to convict President Donald Trump following the Jan. 6, 2021, attack by his supporters on the U.S. Capitol.

Early results showed Cassidy trailing two challengers, and WBRZ political analyst James Hartman said it appeared U.S. Rep. Julia Letlow would reach a runoff. 

With about one-fifth of precincts reporting unofficial returns, Letlow had received 43 percent of the votes cast, while state Treasurer John Fleming had 29 percent and Cassidy had 25 percent.

Trump endorsed Letlow, who gave up her safe U.S. House seat to challenge the two-term incumbent. Fleming was a former deputy chief of staff to Trump in the president's first term, and also in the race is Mark Spencer of Belle Chasse, who billed himself as a "guns and Bible conservative."

The Democratic Party primary featured Nick Albares and Gary Crockett of New Orleans and Jamie Davis of Ferriday.

Saturday's election had featured races for each of the state's six U.S. House seats, but Gov. Jeff Landry canceled primaries after the U.S. Supreme Court said the state had improperly used race to draw up districts that matched the state's demographic makeup. Open primaries have been rescheduled for the House seats in November, with potential runoffs to follow.

But Saturday's contests featured a closed primary for Cassidy and the others, with the expectation that limiting balloting to the state's conservatives would harm Cassidy's re-election chances.

While Cassidy sought to paint Letlow as a liberal for her embracing diversity initiatives at the University of Louisiana at Monroe, where she sought the school presidency, Fleming said during the campaign that he was the only conservative in the race. Letlow's campaign messaging sought to introduce her to a statewide audience; both of her opponents have won statewide races previously.

Cassidy was hopeful that independents and "no party" voters would pull a Republican ballot and vote for him, or that Democrats would change their party affiliation and do the same.

If no one receives more than 50 percent of the vote, a runoff will be held June 27.

Letlow's husband Luke had been elected to Congress in 2020 but died from COVID-19 before taking office. She won a special election in 2021 and won re-election twice.