Oil and natural gas companies are lining up behind Louisiana Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy as he fights an uphill primary battle.
Cassidy, a senior member of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee and outspoken ally of oil, has gotten about $120,000 in campaign contributions from donors and political action committees in oil and adjacent industries since the beginning of last year, a review of his campaign disclosures by POLITICO’s E&E News shows.
Rep. Julia Letlow got about $43,500 from industry sources since entering the race in January, disclosures show. Louisiana Treasurer John Fleming got $12,750 from oil and gas.
Cassidy took in $14,500 from oil and gas in the same period, though many of his donors had already given the maximum allowable amount by then. Fleming got $3,500 of his total in that time period.
Voters will decide who to hand the GOP nomination to this Saturday. While the incumbent has support from Senate Republican leadership, Letlow has the backing of President Donald Trump — who endorsed her before she even announced she would run — and Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry.
If no candidate gets a majority of the primary votes, the top two candidates will advance to a June 27 runoff.
The most recent major public poll on the race, published this month by Quantus Insights, showed Letlow leading with 42 percent of the vote to Fleming’s 30 percent and Cassidy’s 20 percent. An Emerson College poll in late April, however, had Fleming barely ahead with 28 percent, to Letlow’s 27 percent and Cassidy’s 21 percent.
Despite trailing in the polls, Cassidy lead in oil-money donations is “not surprising,” said Pearson Cross, a politics professor at the University of Louisiana at Monroe and longtime state politics observer who is tracking the race.
“The advantage that Cassidy has in this regard reflects his longer political service, and also his status as an incumbent. Even when they are challenged, incumbents are a good bet compared to most challengers,” Cross said of Cassidy’s appeal for business interests.
Cross predicted that any Louisiana Republican politician would have a favorable agenda for oil and gas. The sector dominates Louisiana’s economy, owing mostly to the state’s place as the base for much of the Gulf of Mexico’s offshore drilling activity.
Trump has targeted Cassidy primarily for his 2021 vote to convict the president in the impeachment trial over his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol by his supporters.
Cassidy, a physician, has also used his position atop the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee to scrutinize Trump’s health agenda and work to block at least one of his administration nominees.
Cassidy has worked on various proposals to boost oil and gas, including opening more areas to offshore drilling, ending the Biden administration’s pause on new liquefied natural gas export approvals and easing air pollution permitting rules.
He’s the lead sponsor of the “Foreign Pollution Fee Act,” which would impose fees on certain imported products based on how much more carbon intensive they are than their domestic versions. Cassidy has argued that it would benefit oil and gas companies, but conservatives say it would be a carbon tax and raise prices.
Letlow has had a shorter career in Congress. Her record includes being a leader on the “Lower Energy Costs Act,” House Republicans’ 2023 bill to ease a broad range of policies for oil and gas; as well as the “Unlocking Our Domestic LNG Potential Act,” a bill to repeal the Energy Department’s power to block LNG export applications.
Fleming has accused Cassidy of not being sufficiently supportive of oil. He’s also an outspoken opponent of carbon dioxide capture and storage projects.
Cassidy, meanwhile, has focused his attention mainly on Letlow, including using her trip to a 2023 United Nations climate change conference to paint her as a “progressive leader.”
In all, Cassidy has raised $6.7 million between the beginning of 2025 and April 26, the last filing deadline. Letlow brought in $4.4 million in that time, though $2.3 million was transferred from her House campaign. Fleming brought in $11.3 million, of which $10.7 million were personal loans to his campaign.
Letlow also got some indirect oil industry help through the Accountability Project, a super PAC supporting her Senate campaign. The PAC got a $250,000 contribution from Commonwealth LNG, which is planning an LNG export terminal near Cameron, Louisiana.
In addition, Scotty Moran, an owner of Moran Oil Co., gave $250,000 to Hope in Action. Hope in Action, another PAC, has disclosed giving money almost exclusively to the Accountability Project.
Commonwealth and Moran did not respond to requests for comment.
Donors to the candidates’ campaigns include Robert Pender and Michael Sabel, the top executives at Venture Global, who each gave more than $10,000 to both top candidates.
Cassidy also got donations from Excelerate Energy’s Steven Kobos, Anschutz Corp.’s Philip Anschutz and Hunt Consolidated’s Woody Hunt and Ray Hunt.
