Bill Cassidy

WASHINGTON – U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy, who lost Louisiana’s newly closed party primary election in May, filed legislation this week requiring states to conduct open primaries for federal offices.

Cassidy, R-Baton Rouge, said about 45% of the American electorate is politically independent of the parties, regardless of their registration.

“That’s a bigger chunk of Americans than either the Republican or the Democratic Party,” Cassidy said. “I firmly believe the political system should serve the people. And it shouldn’t be designed so that the people serve the politician.”

The legislation will have tough going. The Senate is out of town and will return to Capitol Hill in mid-November with a full plate of work to accomplish in the few remaining weeks of the 119th Congress.

Cassidy’s bill would require voters in federal elections to show photo identification at the polls and also limit gerrymandering by state legislatures, in which election districts are configured to include a certain group of voters while limiting the influence of other voters.

Since the 1970s, Louisiana used a “majority vote primary,” also sometimes called a “jungle primary.” Candidates ran against each other regardless of party, and the two top vote-getters advanced to a runoff if no one candidate received 50% plus one of the votes.

The state briefly switched to closed party primaries from 2008 to 2010 after several Republicans started making moves to challenge then-incumbent Sen. David Vitter, R-Metairie, who was involved in a prostitution scandal. Vitter went on to win the primary and the general election. The Legislature then returned to open primaries.

The Louisiana Legislature, at the urging Republican Gov. Jeff Landry, changed Louisiana’s system to ensure that Republicans decide who the GOP candidate for the U.S. Senate was going to be.

Cassidy, who had the second-highest vote totals in Louisiana history in 2020, was pilloried by Louisiana Republicans and censured twice just a few months later because of local anger about his opposition to President Donald Trump.

He was one of the few Republican senators who voted to convict Trump on impeachment charges stemming from the January 6, 2021 storming of the U.S. Capitol by MAGA supporters, which delayed the official congressional certification that Joe Biden had won the presidential election.

Trump called Cassidy, who chairs one of the Senate’s most important committees, the worst senator on social media.

The president backed U.S. Rep. Julia Letlow, R-Baton Rouge, over Cassidy, who was seeking a third term. Under the new closed primary system, Cassidy came in third on May 16 behind Letlow and State Treasurer John Fleming, R-Minden.