Bill Cassidy | |
|---|---|
 Official portrait, 2015 | |
| Chair of theSenate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee | |
| Assumed office January 3, 2025 | |
| Preceded by | Bernie Sanders |
| Ranking Member of theSenate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee | |
| In office January 3, 2023 – January 3, 2025 | |
| Preceded by | Richard Burr |
| Succeeded by | Bernie Sanders |
| United States Senator fromLouisiana | |
| Assumed office January 3, 2015 Serving with John Kennedy | |
| Preceded by | Mary Landrieu |
| Member of theU.S. House of Representatives fromLouisiana's6th district | |
| In office January 3, 2009 – January 3, 2015 | |
| Preceded by | Don Cazayoux |
| Succeeded by | Garret Graves |
| Member of theLouisiana State Senate from the 16th district | |
| In office December 20, 2006 – January 3, 2009 | |
| Preceded by | Jay Dardenne |
| Succeeded by | Dan Claitor |
| Personal details | |
| Born | William Morgan Cassidy (1957-09-28)September 28, 1957 (age 68) Highland Park, Illinois, U.S. |
| Party | Republican |
| Other political affiliations | Democratic (formerly) |
| Spouse | |
| Children | 3 |
| Education | Louisiana State University (BS,MD) |
| Website | Senate website Campaign website |
William Morgan Cassidy (born September 28, 1957) is an American politician and physician who is theseniorUnited States senator fromLouisiana, a seat he has held since 2015. A member of theRepublican Party, he served in theLouisiana State Senate from 2006 to 2009 and in theU.S. House of Representatives from 2009 to 2015. Cassidy has chaired the SenateHealth, Education, Labor, & Pensions (HELP) Committee since 2025.[1]
Born inHighland Park, Illinois, Cassidy is a graduate ofLouisiana State University (LSU) andLSU School of Medicine. Agastroenterologist, he was elected to the Louisiana State Senate from the 16th district which included parts of Baton Rouge, in 2006. In 2008, he was elected as the U.S. representative forLouisiana's 6th congressional district, defeatingDemocratic incumbentDon Cazayoux. Cassidy was elected to the Senate in2014, defeating Democratic incumbentMary Landrieu. He was reelected in2020.
Amoderate Republican,[2][3][4][5] Cassidy was a critic of PresidentDonald Trump.[6][7] In 2021, he was one of seven Republican senators to vote to convict Trump ofincitement of insurrection in hissecond impeachment trial. As a result, the Republican Party of Louisianacensured him.[8] In 2023, after Trump wasindicted for mishandling classified documents, Cassidy called for Trump to drop out of the2024 presidential election.[6] After Trump secured the Republican nomination, Cassidy declined to endorse him in the general election.[9]
William Morgan Cassidy was born inHighland Park, Illinois, one of four sons of Elizabeth and James F. Cassidy, and is ofIrish andWelsh descent.[10] He moved toBaton Rouge, Louisiana, as an infant, and received aBachelor of Science fromLouisiana State University in 1979 and aDoctor of Medicine fromLSU School of Medicine in 1983.[11] He completed his residency in internal medicine atUniversity of Southern California/Los Angeles General Medical Center in 1987, followed by a hepatology-gastroenterology fellowship at the same institution in 1989.[12]
After his medical training, Cassidy spent a year in Los Angeles as a liver specialist and internal medicine physician at the Cigna Medical Center before returning to Louisiana in 1990.[12] He specialized in the treatment of liver disease at theEarl K. Long Medical Center (LSUMC).[13]
In 1998, Cassidy helped found the Greater Baton Rouge Community Clinic to provide uninsured residents of the greater Baton Rouge area with access to free health care. The Clinic provides low-income families with free dental, medical, mental health, and vision care through a "virtual" approach that partners needy patients with doctors who provide care free of charge.[14]
Cassidy has also been involved in setting up the nonprofit Health Centers in Schools, which vaccinates children in the East Baton Rouge Parish School System againsthepatitis B and flu.[15][16]
In the wake ofHurricane Katrina, Cassidy led a group of health care volunteers to convert an abandonedKmart into an emergency health care facility, providing basic health care to hurricane victims.[17]
In 2010, Cassidy's alma mater, Louisiana State University, selected him forhonoris causa membership inOmicron Delta Kappa, the National Leadership Honor Society.
Cassidy was first elected to theLouisiana State Senate in 2006 as a Republican. He had previously been a Democrat, supportingMichael Dukakis for presidentin 1988, donating to SenatorPaul Tsongas's1992 presidential campaign,[18][19] and to Louisiana Democrats GovernorKathleen Blanco in 2003 and 2004 and SenatorMary Landrieu in 2002. In 2013, Cassidy called his donation to Landrieu a "youthful indiscretion", saying that she "got elected and fell into partisan politics... Louisiana hasn't left Mary, Mary has left us." Since 2001, he has mostly contributed to Republican candidates, including SenatorDavid Vitter. According to Cassidy, he switched parties after the extinction of conservative Democrats and because of his frustration with the bureaucracy and inefficiency of the public hospital system.[19][20]
On December 9, 2006, Cassidy won aspecial election for the District 16 seat in the Louisiana Senate. In his first bid for public office, he defeated veteranState Representative and fellow Republican William Daniel, andLibertarian candidate S.B. Zaitoon.[21] The election was held to replaceJay Dardenne, who vacated the seat he had held since 1992 upon his election as Louisiana Secretary of State.[22] Cassidy was sworn in on December 20, 2006. On October 20, 2007, he was reelected to a full four-year term in the Louisiana State Senate. Cassidy received 76% of the vote against Republican Troy "Rocco" Moreau (15%) and Libertarian Richard Fontanesi (9%).[23]
On November 4, 2008, Cassidy was elected to serveLouisiana's 6th district in theU.S. House of Representatives, defeating incumbent Democratic CongressmanDon Cazayoux with 48% of the vote.[24] He likely owed his victory to the independent candidacy of state representative Michael L. Jackson. Jackson finished third with 36,100 votes, more than the 25,000-vote margin separating Cassidy and Cazayoux.
In the 2010 midterm elections, Cassidy easily won a second term, defeating Democrat Merritt E. McDonald of Baton Rouge with 66% of the vote.[25] In the 2012 election, Cassidy was reelected again defeating Rufus Holt Craig, Jr., a Libertarian, and Richard Torregano, an Independent. Cassidy received 79% of the vote.[26]
In May 2009, Cassidy partnered with California Democratic RepresentativeJackie Speier to introduce legislation that would amend the House of Representatives rules to require that members of Congress list their earmark requests on their congressional websites. Previous earmark reform efforts had focused on disclosure of earmarks that were funded by Congress.[27] In June 2010, he introduced the Gulf Coast Jobs Preservation Act to terminate the moratorium on deep water drilling and require the Secretary of the Interior to ensure the safety of deep water drilling operations.[28][29] He worked to ensure that money from the Gulf Coast Restoration Trust Fund which was established in the wake of the BP oil spill, is spent on coastal restoration efforts.[30]
In December 2010, Cassidy voted to extend the tax cuts enacted during the administration of PresidentGeorge W. Bush.[31] He voted for the Constitutional Balanced Budget Amendment of 2011.[32]
In May 2013, Cassidy introduced theEnergy Consumers Relief Act of 2013 (H.R. 1582) to require theEnvironmental Protection Agency (EPA) to submit reports to both theUnited States Congress and theUnited States Department of Energy regarding proposed regulation that would have significant compliance costs (an impact of over $1 billion).[33][34] The Department of Energy and Congress would then have the option of stopping or altering the EPA proposal.[33]
In 2013, due to theAmerican Medical Association's decision to officially recognizeobesity as a disease, Senators and Representatives, including Cassidy, helped introduce legislation to lower health care costs and preventchronic diseases by addressing America's growing obesity crisis. Cassidy said the Treat and Reduce Obesity Act could help empower physicians to use all methods and means to fight the condition.[35]
In June 2013, Cassidy supported a House-passed bill that federally bannedabortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy.[36] Also in 2013, Cassidy circulated a draft letter opposing an immigration reform bill, asking for signatures. Democratic RepresentativeMark Takano, a high school literature teacher for 23 years, marked it up in red pen like a school assignment and gave it an F, with comments like, "exaggeration -- avoid hyperbole," and "contradicts earlier statement."[37]
In 2014 Cassidy co-sponsored an amendment to the Homeowner Flood Insurance Affordability Act in 2014 to limit annual premium increases for flood insurance, reinstate the flood insurance program's grandfathering provision, and eliminate a provision that required an increase to actuarial levels when a home is sold.[38]
Cassidy was a vocal opponent of thePatient Protection and Affordable Care Act (commonly called Obamacare or the Affordable Care Act), arguing that it would fail to lower costs and give too much decision-making authority to the federal government.[39] In September 2014, the House passed theEmployee Health Care Protection Act of 2013 (H.R. 3522; 113th Congress), sponsored by Cassidy, enabling Americans to keep health insurance policies that do not meet all of the Affordable Care Act's requirements.[40] In March 2017, Cassidy sent a letter to one of his constituents that falsely asserted that Obamacare "allows a presidentially handpicked 'Health Choices Commissioner' to determine what coverage and treatments are available to you."[41]
Cassidy supported theLowering Gasoline Prices to Fuel an America That Works Act of 2014 (H.R. 4899; 113th Congress), a bill to revise existing laws regarding the development of oil and gas resources on theOuter Continental Shelf.[42] The bill was intended to increase domestic energy production and lower gas prices.[43][44] He argued that the bill "would allow us to take advantage of our natural resources and expands our energy manufacturing and construction industries."[45]
While in the House of Representatives, Cassidy was a member of many congressional caucuses,[47] including theHouse Tea Party Caucus andRepublican Study Committee.[48]
Cassidy ran for theU.S. Senate in the 2014 election, in which he was endorsed by Republican SenatorDavid Vitter.
He defeated incumbent Democratic SenatorMary Landrieu in a runoff election, receiving 56% of the vote to Landrieu's 44%. It was the first Republican victory for the seat sinceWilliam P. Kellogg in 1883.[51][52]
Cassidy was reelected in 2020 with 59.32% of the vote.
On May 8, 2017, Cassidy appeared onJimmy Kimmel Live! and discussedhealthcare in the United States.[53] He said that any legislation that he would support must meet the "Jimmy Kimmel test", namely: "Would a child born with congenital heart disease be able to get everything he or she would need in that first year of life?"[54] Kimmel had earlier chastised Republicans for voting to repeal the Affordable Care Act and replace it with legislation that would not ensure protection for children such as his newborn, who was born with a heart defect that required immediate surgery.[54]
In September 2017, Cassidy andLindsey Graham introduced legislationto repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act. The "Graham–Cassidy" bill would eliminate the ACA'smarketplace subsidies, repeal the ACA'sMedicaid expansion, and introduce a temporary block grant that would expire in 2026.[55] The legislation would also impose a per-enrollee cap onMedicaid funding.[55] TheKaiser Family Foundation noted that the legislation "would fundamentally alter the current federal approach to financing health coverage for more than 80 million people who have coverage through the ACA (Medicaid expansion or marketplace) or through the traditional Medicaid program."[55] An analysis by theCenter on Budget and Policy Priorities found that the legislation "would cut federal health care funding by $299 billion relative to current law" in the year 2027 alone and estimated that it would leave 32 million more Americanswithout health insurance.[56] PresidentDonald Trump endorsed the bill.[57]
The bill does not meet the "Jimmy Kimmel test", as it would allow states to eliminate requirements to cover children with conditions like that of Kimmel's child.[54] Kimmel condemned Cassidy, calling him a liar,[54] listed the health organizations that opposed Graham–Cassidy, and urged his viewers to contact their congressional representatives about the legislation.[54] Cassidy responded to Kimmel, saying that Kimmel "doesn't understand" the legislation.[58] Cassidy also said that under Graham–Cassidy, "more people will have coverage" than under the Affordable Care Act. According to theWashington Post fact checker, Cassidy "provided little evidence to support his claim of more coverage... the consensus [among health care analysts] is that his funding formula makes his claim all but impossible to achieve."[58]
On February 5, 2020, Cassidy joined all Republican senators exceptMitt Romney in voting to acquit Trump on both articles of impeachment in hisfirst impeachment trial.[59]
Cassidy was in attendance during the2021 United States Electoral College vote count when Trump supportersstormed the United States Capitol. He tweeted during the attack, calling them "hooligans" and the storming "un-American." He later said the participants were guilty ofsedition "and should be prosecuted as such."[60] When the Capitol was secured and Congress resumed, Cassidy voted to certify the results of the 2020 presidential election.[61]
Cassidy was one of seven Republican senators to vote to convict Trump ofincitement of insurrection in hissecond impeachment trial.[62] Hours after the vote, theRepublican Party of Louisiana censured him.[8] Cassidy was praised by several Democrats, including his predecessorMary Landrieu.[63]
On May 27, 2021, along with five other Republicans and all Democrats, Cassidy voted to establish a bipartisan commission to investigate the January 6 storming of the U.S. Capitol. The vote fell short of the 60 required "yes" votes.[64]
In 2023, after Trump wasindicted for mishandling classified documents, Cassidy called for Trump to drop out of the2024 presidential election.[6] When Trump won the Republican nomination, Cassidy declined to endorse him.[9]
During the 118th Congress (2023–2025), Cassidy became the ranking member of theSenate HELP Committee. In this capacity, he worked with committee chairmanBernie Sanders to pass bipartisan legislation aimed at lowering prescription drug costs and reformingPBMs.[65] He also continued his legislative focus on mental health, co-sponsoring bills to improve access to care.[66] Cassidy reiterated his opposition to Trump, saying in March 2024 that he would not vote for him in that year's presidential election.[67]
Cassidy began his tenure in the 119th Congress in January 2025 as chair of theSenate HELP Committee.[68] In his opening remarks as chair, he outlined his priorities, including addressing declining child literacy, improving support for dyslexia, examining antisemitism on college campuses, and reforming the federal retirement system.[69]
Cassidy is regarded as amoderate Republican.[2][3][4][5]
Cassidy opposesabortion after 20 weeks and any federal funding for abortion.[70] He supported the 2022overturning ofRoe v. Wade, calling it a decision that "recognizes that an unborn child has a right to life".[71] Also in 2022, Cassidy said Louisiana's maternal mortality rate was among the nation's highest because "About a third of our population is African American; African Americans have a higher incidence of maternal mortality. So if you correct our population for race, we're not as much of an outlier as it'd otherwise appear".[72]
In July 2019, Cassidy was one of eight senators to introduce the Agricultural Trucking Relief Act, a bill that would alter the definition of an agricultural commodity to include both horticultural and aquacultural products and promote greater consistency in regulation by federal and state agencies as part of an attempt to ease regulatory burdens on trucking and the agri-community.[73]
In November 2023, Cassidy andLindsey Graham co-sponsored theForeign Pollution Fee Act. Endorsed by theSierra Club, the bill (S. 3198; referred to theSenate Finance Committee) proposed acarbon tariff on energy and industrialimports based on the good'semission intensity orcarbon footprint as compared with the same domestic good to impose acarbon price on goods fromcountries with greater greenhouse gas emissions than theUnited States.[74][75][76]
In July 2019 Cassidy was one of 16 Republican senators to send Acting Office of Management and Budget (OMB) DirectorRussell Vought, Acting White House Chief of StaffMick Mulvaney, and Treasury SecretarySteven Mnuchin a letter encouraging them to work with them to prevent a continuing resolution "for FY 2020 that would delay the implementation of the President’s National Defense Strategy (NDS) and increase costs" and arguing that the yearlong continuing resolution administration officials favored would render the Defense Department "incapable of increasing readiness, recapitalizing our force, or rationalizing funding to align with the National Defense Strategy (NDS)."[77]
Cassidy was among the 31 Senate Republicans who voted against final passage of theFiscal Responsibility Act of 2023.[78]
In October 2023, Cassidy visited China as part of a bipartisan congressional delegation led by Senate Majority LeaderChuck Schumer and met withGeneral Secretary of the Chinese Communist PartyXi Jinping. The delegation also met Director of theOffice of the Central Foreign Affairs CommissionWang Yi,Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's CongressZhao Leji, andShanghai Communist Party SecretaryChen Jining.[79]
In January 2024, Cassidy voted against a resolution proposed by SenatorBernie Sanders to apply thehuman rights provisions of theForeign Assistance Act toU.S. aid to Israel's military. The proposal was defeated, 72 to 11.[80]
Cassidy opposesgun control as a matter of principle.[81]
In January 2019, Cassidy was one of 31 Republican senators to cosponsor the Constitutional Concealed Carry Reciprocity Act, a bill introduced byJohn Cornyn andTed Cruz that would allow people with concealed-carry privileges in their home state to exercise this right in any other state with concealed-carry laws while concurrently abiding by that state's laws.[82]
In May 2022, after theRobb Elementary School shooting, Cassidy reaffirmed his opposition to banning any kind of guns, including theAR-15.[83] At the same time, during a live video discussion on youthmental health hosted byTheWashington Post, he said he was "open to some discussions on ways to prevent shootings", such asred-flag laws and expandedbackground checks.[84] Cassidy later became one of ten Republican senators to support a bipartisan agreement on gun control, which included a red flag provision, a support for state crisis intervention orders, funding for school safety resources, stronger background checks for buyers under the age of 21, and penalties for straw purchases, and was one of 15 Republican senators to vote for theBipartisan Safer Communities Act, which President Biden later signed.[85]
Cassidy supports lengthening the solvency ofSocial Security, which is scheduled to run out of money to pay all beneficiaries by 2034.[86][87] In 2021, he and SenatorAngus King proposed creating a $1.5 trillion investment fund managed independently of Congress to fund 75% of the Social Security trust fund's liabilities.[86][87][88] Cassidy has criticized both Biden's and Trump's views on Social Security.[86][88]
In 2019, along with DemocratsAmy Klobuchar andDoug Jones and RepublicanPat Toomey, Cassidy was a lead sponsor of the Gold Star Family Tax Relief Act, a bill that would undo a provision in the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act that raised the tax on the benefit children receive from a parent's Department of Defense survivor benefits plan to 37% from an average of 12% to 15% before the 2017 law. The bill passed in the Senate in May 2019.[89]
On July 30, 2019, Cassidy and SenatorKyrsten Sinema released a proposal under which new parents would be authorized to advance their child tax credit benefits in order to receive a $5,000 cash benefit upon either birth or adoption of a child. The parents' child tax credit would then be reduced by $500 for each year of the following decade. The senators described their proposal as the first bipartisan paid parental leave plan.[90]
As a physician described as a "lifelong advocate for vaccines", Cassidy was seen as a swing vote on the Senate Finance Panel for the confirmation of anti-vaccine advocateRobert F. Kennedy Jr. as Secretary of Health and Human Services.[91] During the confirmation hearings in January 2025, Cassidy pressed Kennedy over his opposition to childhood vaccinations and refusal to denounce the discredited theory that vaccines cause autism.[92] Cassidy said he struggled to decide whether to vote to confirm Kennedy because of his ethics as a doctor ("dedicating my life to saving lives").[93] But after pressure from Republican leaders, he voted to advance Kennedy's nomination from the Senate Finance Committee to the full Senate for confirmation.[93][94]
Cassidy said he received "commitments" from Kennedy to meet with Cassidy several times a month, give advance notice to Congress if he imposes any changes to vaccine safety monitoring, and not to have the CDC remove from its website statements that vaccines do not cause autism.[95][96] During the confirmation hearings, Kennedy also promised Cassidy that he would not change the U.S.vaccination schedule.[97] But less than a week after taking office, Kennedy announced he would convene a panel to examine the vaccination schedule.[97]
Under Kennedy, the CDC announced plans to investigate debunked claims of a link between autism and the measles vaccination. Cassidy called this a waste of money.[98][99]
Cassidy's wife, Laura (née Layden), is also a physician. They met during their respective residencies inLos Angeles and married on September 29, 1989.[100] In the early 1990s, both worked at the Earl K. Long Medical Center, where Laura was the hospital's head of surgery. Cassidy worked as agastroenterologist at the facility until it closed in 2013.[101] They have three children.[102] They are members of The Chapel on the Campus, a nondenominational Christian church that meets on LSU's campus in Baton Rouge.[103]
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Republican | Bill Cassidy | 8,394 | 58.06 | ||
| Republican | William Daniel | 5,472 | 37.85 | ||
| Libertarian | S.B.A. Zaitoon | 592 | 4.09 | ||
| Total votes | 14,458 | 100.00 | |||
| Republicanhold | |||||
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Republican | Bill Cassidy (incumbent) | 33,463 | 75.64 | ||
| Republican | Troy "Rocco" Moreau | 6,781 | 15.33 | ||
| Libertarian | Richard Fontanesi | 3,995 | 9.03 | ||
| Total votes | 44,239 | 100.00 | |||
| Republicanhold | |||||
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Republican | Bill Cassidy | 150,332 | 48.12 | ||
| Democratic | Don Cazayoux (incumbent) | 125,886 | 40.29 | ||
| No Party | Michael L. Jackson | 36,198 | 11.59 | ||
| Total votes | 312,416 | 100.00 | |||
| Republicangain fromDemocratic | |||||
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Republican | Bill Cassidy (incumbent) | 138,607 | 65.63 | ||
| Democratic | Merritt E. McDonald, Sr. | 72,577 | 34.37 | ||
| Total votes | 211,184 | 100.00 | |||
| Republicanhold | |||||
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Republican | Bill Cassidy (incumbent) | 243,553 | 79.41 | ||
| Libertarian | Rufus Holt Craig, Jr | 32,185 | 10.49 | ||
| No Party | Richard "RPT" Torregano | 30,975 | 10.10 | ||
| Total votes | 306,713 | 100.00 | |||
| Republicanhold | |||||
| Primary election | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ||
| Democratic | Mary Landrieu (incumbent) | 619,402 | 42.08 | ||
| Republican | Bill Cassidy | 603,048 | 40.97 | ||
| Republican | Rob Maness | 202,556 | 13.76 | ||
| Republican | Thomas Clements | 14,173 | 0.96 | ||
| Libertarian | Brannon McMorris | 13,034 | 0.89 | ||
| Democratic | Wayne Ables | 11,323 | 0.77 | ||
| Democratic | William Waymire | 4,673 | 0.32 | ||
| Democratic | Vallian Senegal | 3,835 | 0.26 | ||
| Total votes | 1,473,826 | 100.00 | |||
| General election | |||||
| Republican | Bill Cassidy | 712,379 | 55.93 | ||
| Democratic | Mary Landrieu (incumbent) | 561,210 | 44.07 | ||
| Total votes | 1,273,589 | 100.00 | |||
| Republicangain fromDemocratic | |||||
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Republican | Bill Cassidy (incumbent) | 1,228,908 | 59.32 | ||
| Democratic | Adrian Perkins | 394,049 | 19.02 | ||
| Democratic | Derrick Edwards | 229,814 | 11.09 | ||
| Democratic | Antoine Pierce | 55,710 | 2.69 | ||
| Republican | Dustin Murphy | 38,383 | 1.85 | ||
| Democratic | Drew Knight | 36,962 | 1.78 | ||
| Independent | Beryl Billiot | 17,362 | 0.84 | ||
| Independent | John Paul Bourgeois | 16,518 | 0.80 | ||
| Democratic | Peter Wenstrup | 14,454 | 0.70 | ||
| Libertarian | Aaron Sigler | 11,321 | 0.55 | ||
| Independent | M.V. "Vinny" Mendoza | 7,811 | 0.38 | ||
| Independent | Melinda Mary Price | 7,680 | 0.37 | ||
| Independent | Jamar Montgomery | 5,804 | 0.28 | ||
| Independent | Reno Jean Daret III | 3,954 | 0.19 | ||
| Independent | Alexander "Xan" John | 2,813 | 0.14 | ||
| Total votes | 2,071,543 | 100.00 | |||
| Republicanhold | |||||
Voting to find Trump guilty were GOP Sens. Richard Burr of North Carolina, Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Mitt Romney of Utah, Ben Sasse of Nebraska, Patrick Toomey of Pennsylvania.
{{cite web}}:Missing or empty|title= (help)The Second Amendment guarantees law-abiding citizens the right to keep and bear arms. I am proud to have an "A" rating from the National Rifle Association (NRA) because I have and will continue to fight for Louisianans rights that are protected by the Constitution.
If you ask the people who own [an AR-15], they'll wonder why you would take it away from them.
[F]ederal red flag laws and an expansion of required background checks on firearm sales is certainly something to discuss.
| U.S. House of Representatives | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Member of theU.S. House of Representatives fromLouisiana's 6th congressional district 2009–2015 | Succeeded by |
| Party political offices | ||
| Preceded by | Republican nominee forU.S. Senator fromLouisiana (Class 2) 2014,2020 | Most recent |
| U.S. Senate | ||
| Preceded by | U.S. Senator (Class 2) from Louisiana 2015–present Served alongside:David Vitter,John Kennedy | Incumbent |
| Preceded by | Ranking Member of theSenate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee 2023–2025 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Chair of theSenate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee 2025–present | Incumbent |
| U.S. order of precedence (ceremonial) | ||
| Preceded by | Order of precedence of the United States as United States Senator | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | United States senators by seniority 49th | Succeeded by |
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