Senator Bill Cassidy continues to hammer Congresswoman Julia Letlow in the Republican Senate primary for previously supporting DEI policies. In videos from 2020 when Letlow was seeking to be the president at ULM, she told the search committee she was committed to a more diverse faculty. Cassidy also claims Letlow wanted to open the school’s first DEI division.
“She was very earnestly saying that there needed to be a department of DEI, fully-staffed, reporting to the president, the position she’s applying for; to be involved in every decision before the final decision was made,” Cassidy said.
Letlow also described herself as a strong and progressive leader. In a press conference call with reporters on Monday, Cassidy explained why he opposes DEI policies.
“I am all for diversity. What I’m against, is a kind of plugged-in, you’ve got to shovel it in, shoehorn it in, block people out in order to get some artificial diversity. I am totally against that,” Cassidy said.
In a statement released by her campaign, Letlow says DEI was presented in higher education as a way to encourage people to achieve the American dream, but now she sees it as a tool for the radical left to divide people, push indoctrination and hold people down instead of lifting them up.
Letlow also claims Cassidy has also supported DEI bureaucracy. She points out that the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act that Cassidy supported contained several equity-related provisions. Cassidy says he was more interested in the money that the legislation brought to Louisiana.
“Is she really saying, because there’s some fine print that the Biden administration inserted into a rule, is a reason to vote against $13.5 billion coming to our state? I, frankly, think she should be embarrassed by that,” Cassidy said.
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