Trump-backed Letlow faces Fleming in Louisiana GOP Senate runoff

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — President Donald Trump's preferred candidate for U.S. Senate in Louisiana is looking to clinch the GOP nomination Saturday and deliver another win for the president, who has sought to replace Republicans who cross him with hand-picked loyalists.

U.S. Rep. Julia Letlow, who was endorsed by Trump, and state Treasurer John Fleming are competing in the runoff. The two finished ahead of Sen. Bill Cassidy in the May 16 primary after Trump denounced the two-term senator, who voted to convict him following his 2021 impeachment.

A Letlow victory would cap Trump's primary efforts to unseat Republicans who have not been in lockstep with him. Kentucky Rep. Thomas Massie, Texas Sen. John Cornyn and five Indiana state senators all lost reelection bids last month to challengers he backed.

Letlow was elected to the House in 2021 after her husband, Luke Letlow, won the same seat but died before taking office. She received Trump’s backing before entering the primary race in January.

She finished first in the primary with nearly 45% of the vote, compared with about 28% for Fleming and nearly 25% for Cassidy.

“We have a chance to send a clear message that Louisiana stands with President Trump,” Letlow said Thursday in an online rally with the president. “He endorsed me because he knows I will stand with him.”

Letlow's success on May 16, campaign spending on her behalf and support from prominent Republicans have her well positioned in the runoff. She was also endorsed by Gov. Jeff Landry, who consulted with Trump last year about her running for Senate, and U.S. House Majority Leader Steve Scalise.

Last month Letlow won in parishes from the state's rural north to the New Orleans area in the southeast. She carried six of the 13 parishes that Fleming formerly represented in the U.S. House, including Caddo Parish, which includes Shreveport.

Fleming, a founder of the conservative House Freedom Caucus while in Congress, later worked in Trump's first administration. He has reminded voters that he did not resign after the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol by Trump supporters.

He has appealed to those who identify with the president's “Make America Great Again” movement, saying his voting record is more conservative than Letlow's. His campaign ads describe him as MAGA “long before it was cool.”

Fleming has told voters he was blocked from reaching Trump to seek his endorsement by White House allies of Landry. Fleming says he finally got on the phone with Trump and reminded the president who he was.

“I said nobody has been more loyal to you than me,” Fleming recounted during a June campaign stop. “He said, 'You’re fantastic! Why didn't you call?'”

Mary Patricia Wray, a Louisiana political consultant who advises Republican and Democratic candidates, said she expects Fleming to perform well in rural areas but Letlow has the upper hand.

“Higher-information voters in more populous areas are going to fall into that Letlow camp,” Wray said. “She is the more institutional-looking candidate.”

The two campaigns have spent comparably on advertising, roughly $1 million each. But a super PAC that supports Letlow has led all spending, accounting for $4 million since the primary, according to the ad-tracking firm AdImpact.

Fleming has ads highlighting Letlow's previous public support for diversity, equity and inclusion policy, which Trump has tried to eliminate. Letlow, a former college administrator, said she supported DEI while interviewing for the position of president of the University of Louisiana-Monroe in 2020, but said this year she opposes it.

Fleming reposted an AI-generated video on the social platform X this month that purported to show Letlow saying she supported DEI because she “didn't know any better.” The fake image of Letlow also referenced her husband, who died from complications of COVID-19.

Fleming said he did not create the video “but it’s getting passed around Louisiana for a reason.”

Letlow condemned the sharing of the video as “disgraceful and indefensible,” chiefly for its mention of her husband.

Letlow has emphasized key priorities for social conservatives, notably her support for national legislation barring transgender women and girls from competing in school sports.

Fleming staked much of his campaign on opposition to carbon capture and sequestration, the process for injecting carbon dioxide waste underground to reduce industrial pollution. The technology’s build-out, included planned pipelines, has sparked backlash in rural Louisiana communities and divided the state GOP.

Fleming said such projects infringe on private property rights and federal government subsidies for the technology are wasteful.

In the Democratic primary, Jamie Davis, a northeast Louisiana crop farmer, faces Gary Crockett, a Navy veteran and business executive. Both have promoted addressing the cost of living and protecting social safety nets.

The state is heavily Republican. Trump carried Louisiana by 22 percentage points in 2024.

Beaumont reported from Des Moines, Iowa.

FILE - John Fleming, a U.S. Senate candidate, current Louisiana treasurer and former Republican House representative of Louisiana, greets supporters at a Ronald Reagan Newsmaker Luncheon in Baton Rouge, La., May 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert, File)

FILE - U.S. Senate candidate Rep. Julia Letlow, R-La., right, speaks with supporters during an election night watch party, May 16, 2026, in Baton Rouge, La. (AP Photo/Matthew Hinton, File)

FILE - U.S. Senate candidate, current Louisiana treasurer and former U.S. Representative (R-La.) John Fleming, speaks in Baton Rouge, La., May 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert, File)

FILE - U.S. Senate candidate Rep. Julia Letlow, R-La., speaks to media during an election night watch party, May 16, 2026, in Baton Rouge, La. (AP Photo/Matthew Hinton, File)

Hot, dry and windy conditions are fueling a fast-moving wildfire in Utah, forcing the governor to declare an emergency and restrict fireworks as critical weather across the West gives way to mounting concerns that anything could cause a spark.

Firefighters are facing more challenges on the ground from what fire managers and experts call unprecedented conditions.

Air tankers and helicopters were grounded Friday as winds picked up on the Cottonwood Fire, the largest blaze currently burning in the U.S. Gusts were clocked at 45 miles per hour (72 km/h) and humidity levels were in the single digits, leaving crews with few options for slowing the flames, especially as they raced through the treetops.

“We are not expecting the weather to be kind to us for the next couple of days,” said Alyssa Mason, a spokesperson assigned to the fire. "We are seeing extreme fire behavior out there with some crown runs and definitely some spotting.”

Burning in a sparsely populated area of southern Utah, the Cottonwood Fire ballooned Friday to more than 112 square miles (290 square kilometers). One of several large wildfires burning in Utah, it severely damaged the Eagle Point ski resort in Beaver County and forced evacuations. In the community of Marysvale, the smoke blocked out the sun Friday as ash rained down.

“We’re looking at a full 48 hours of critical weather that we have not seen in Utah in the last five years,” meteorologist Jason Straub told a community meeting in Beaver County Friday evening.

A cold front on Sunday will bring winds that could push the fire in new directions before the weather starts stabilizing next week, he said.

The smoke pushed mostly east, meaning air quality at popular vacation spots like Zion and Bryce Canyon national parks — located far south of the flames — hasn’t been significantly affected beyond some haze in the Bryce area.

Still, the plume was visible from miles away, even as far as Colorado.

It's like nothing seen in recent memory, Utah state forester Jamie Barnes said earlier this week. She acknowledged that fires are spreading farther and faster “under conditions that defy historical expectations.”

Nationally, nearly 3 million acres have burned since the start of the year, pushing the U.S. ahead of the 10-year average. The National Interagency Fire Center said firefighters are making progress on containing fires from Alaska to Florida.

Conditions including low humidity and strong winds have triggered red flag warnings across a wide swatch stretching from Idaho to southern Arizona and New Mexico. Some of the forecasts predicted winds of 25 to 35 miles an hour (40 km/h to 56 km/h), with the worst conditions expected from northern Arizona into central and southern Utah.

At Grand Canyon National Park in Arizona, officials were preparing for a power outage on Saturday. The utility that serves the area had warned that it would likely initiate a safety outage in hopes of lessening the risk of wildfire in the area.

Visitors will be able to purchase park passes at entrance stations as long as backup power systems remain operational, but park officials said visitors should come prepared. That means downloading maps and other important information before arriving and ensuring that phones and other electronic devices are fully charged.

Power shutoffs have become more common in the West as wildfire risk has expanded. It's usually a last resort after utility forecasters weigh factors like sustained wind and gust speeds, available fuels and topography.

With extreme fire conditions persisting, Rocky Mountain Power has issued a public safety power shutoff watch/warning for areas of central, southern and eastern Utah through the weekend.

Tim Brown, a research professor and director of the Western Regional Climate Center, said the potential for extreme fire behavior will remain as long as it’s hot, dry and windy. He pointed to parts of the West that have been mired by persistent drought, including Utah, Colorado, Arizona and New Mexico.

“I would not be surprised to see a lot of restrictions come out as we get closer to the July Fourth weekend,” he said. “People really need to be aware of their surroundings if they’re going to be out in the forested campground areas and grassland areas.”

Gov. Spencer Cox set the temporary fireworks restrictions through July 5 as the nation prepares to celebrate its 250th anniversary, saying “this year is different.”

While the Cottonwood Fire's cause was unknown, the governor’s order noted that humans have been the cause of most fires in the state so far this year.

Even in Florida, where there have been multiple brush fires, authorities are urging people to skip the personal fireworks and instead leave the pyrotechnics to professionals putting on carefully planned shows.

Back fire camp, Mason talked about Utah's snowpack and steam flows peaking early in March, resulting in what she called extreme dryness. Then came the wind storms like never seen before, she said.

“If anything happens out there, any kind of spark hits fuels," she said, "it is more than likely going to start a fire and more than likely going get pretty big pretty quick.”

Smoke rises from the Cottonwood Fire near Beaver, Utah, on Friday, June 26, 2026. (AP Photo/Ty ONeil)

A plume of smoke rises from the Cottonwood Fire, Friday, June 26, 2026, near Beaver, Utah. (AP Photo/Ty ONeil)

This undated image provided by the U.S. Forest Service Friday, June 26, 2026, shows firefighters responding to the Cottonwood Fire on Wednesday, June 24, 2026, above Birch Lake, near Beaver, Utah. (Mike McMillan/U.S. Forest Service via AP)

A plume of smoke rises from the Cottonwood Fire, Friday, June 26, 2026, near Beaver, Utah. (AP Photo/Ty ONeil)