Republicans have in recent years waged a “war on woke,” hammering Democrats who embrace progressive policies on race, sexuality and gender.
Now they are using the term to beat up on each other.
In some of this year’s most bitter House and Senate primaries, Republicans are seeking to paint their GOP opponents as advocates of big government spending programs and supporters of diversity, equity and inclusion, or DEI, initiatives.
Railing against “wokeness” has been a staple of Republican politics for several election cycles, and will likely once again play a starring role in GOP attacks on Democrats this fall. The term gained currency following the racial justice protests in 2020 and became shorthand for an awareness of the systemic inequities across a broad swath of American life.
The battle over DEI has emerged as a key line of attack for Louisiana Sen. Bill Cassidy, who’s fighting for his political future against Rep. Julia Letlow, his main rival in next month’s Republican primary. Other red-state Republicans locked in competitive primaries, such as Kentucky Rep. Thomas Massie and Kentucky Senate hopefuls Andy Barr and Daniel Cameron, have adopted a similar strategy.
In Louisiana, Cassidy’s campaign has dubbed his opponent “Liberal Letlow” following news reports that she championed DEI efforts while interviewing to be the president of the University of Louisiana Monroe — before she served in Congress.
In a 2020 video obtained by Fox News, Letlow is seen praising diversity efforts and calling the school’s lack of a diverse faculty “shameful.” She also said the university needed “a person around the table” to fight for diversity, equity and inclusion.
“There’s a video that recently surfaced [in which] she was very earnestly saying that there needed to be a department of DEI,” Cassidy said on a press call Monday. “There’s another clip in which she is announced for the U.S. Senate and [she said,] ‘I’ve always been against DEI.’”
“So,” Cassidy added, “the question is, will the real Julia Letlow please stand up.”
Letlow is a surprising target: She is Donald Trump’s hand-picked choice to oust Cassidy, who drew the president’s ire with his 2021 vote to convict him at his second impeachment trial.
And no Republican has marshaled anti-woke sentiment more effectively than Trump. He won a second term after campaigning heavily against progressive ideals. Immediately after his inauguration, he signed a series of executive orders seeking to end “radical” DEI programs, declaring such efforts “illegal and immoral.”
Trump’s budget proposal released last week takes aim at programs the administration deems “woke,” “wasteful” or “outdated.” These include the Minority Business Development Agency, the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program and the HOME Investment Partnerships Program.
In a statement, Letlow said DEI was initially pitched in higher education “as a way to encourage people to achieve the American dream.”
“But I quickly witnessed firsthand what it really was: another tool the radical left hijacked to divide people, push indoctrination, and build a system that holds people down instead of lifting them up,” she said.
Letlow is the author of legislation known as the Parents Bill of Rights, which would require elementary schools to alert parents if their child used a different pronoun and would permit parents to review course materials, among other provisions. The bill passed the House in 2023 but did not come up for a vote in the Senate.
Letlow, meanwhile, has sought to shift the focus to Cassidy’s record, saying he supported several Biden-era programs, including legislation known as the CHIPS and Science Act and the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, which included diversity and equity provisions.
“He voted with Democrats to fund and expand the DEI machine,’’ she said. “So the contrast in this race is simple: I fought it, and he helped bankroll it.”
Cassidy dismissed that critique, saying the DEI language was embedded into measures that brought significant benefits back to the state.
“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?” he said during Monday’s briefing. “I’ve spoken to contractors, workers, state officials, Republican state legislators our Republican governor [and] I’ve never heard them complain about the DEI requirements in any of that funding that’s come to our state.”
While the Louisiana Senate race is the highest-profile instance of a GOP candidate wielding “wokeness” as a way to attack a primary opponent, it isn’t the only example this cycle.
In Kentucky, Republican Senate candidates Barr and Cameron have criticized businessman Nate Morris after the company he formerly led scrubbed its website of posts dating back years on DEI; environmental, social and governance programs; and Black Lives Matter, according to the Washington Examiner.
Also in Kentucky, Massie has dubbed primary opponent Ed Gallrein, a Trump-backed retired Navy SEAL and farmer, as “woke Eddie,” for accepting a government loan during the COVID-19 crisis.
