US Senator Bill Cassidy (R)
Bill Cassidy has challenged Julia Letlow to a series of three televised debates as the race for the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate is heating up.
LSU political science professor Robert Hogan said the fact that Cassidy is suggesting this at all is a clear indication that alarm bells are going off within his campaign.
“When you have an incumbent that is challenging his adversary to a political debate that’s an indication that he is very worried about his own electoral chances,” said Hogan.
Hogan said Cassidy challenging Letlow to the debates, on top of his campaign’s messaging that labels her as “Liberal Letlow,” proves that Cassidy views Letlow as a serious threat to his re-election chances.
“This clearly indicates that Cassidy feels that he needs to shake up the race in some way in order to be able to move ahead,” said Hogan.
While Cassidy challenged Letlow, he did not challenge the other major candidate in the race, John Fleming. Hogan said Cassidy likely wants to debate just Letlow to avoid getting ganged up on.
“If you had a debate where it was Cassidy, Letlow and Fleming, you would have a two against one scenario,” said Hogan.
The three debates are slated to be held in Shreveport, Baton Rouge and Lafayette.
The Baton Rouge debate is being organized by Louisiana Public Broadcasting and Leaders for a Better Louisiana and is scheduled for April 16th.
Letlow says she cannot attend the Baton Rouge debate due to her commitments in the U.S. House.
But Fleming, who organizers did invite, says he will attend.
Organizers for the Shreveport and Lafayette debates also invited Fleming; Fleming said he would attend the Shreveport debate but did not say whether he would attend the Lafayette debate.
No dates have been announced for those two debates yet.
Andrew Greenstein contributed to this report.
Comments