US Senator Bill Cassidy has been defeated in Saturday's Republican primary in Louisiana, reports said.
Cassidy had voted to convict the US President Donald Trump during his 2021 impeachment trial linked to the January 6 Capitol attack that year, the Associated Press reported.
Cassidy did not secure enough support in the southern state on Saturday to progress to a run-off, the AP report said. He trailed Representative Julia Letlow and State Treasurer John Fleming, who will face each other in a second round of voting on June 27.
Cassidy's decision to vote to convict President Donald Trump in the impeachment trial had drawn flak from the US President's MAGA base.
Trump has been fighting a two-front war in this year's midterm campaigns, as he worked to prevent victories of Democratic candidates and also rooted to purge critics in the Republican Party who have defied him over the years, according to an AP report in January.
Trump has also been facing mounting political pressure over affordability issues, inflation, and a dip in approval ratings even as the criticism of his handling of the US-Israeli war on Iran gained traction.
Cassidy even backed longtime anti-vaccine activist Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as health secretary, though the had reservations arising from his background as a doctor, but that wasn't enough to mend strained ties with Trump.
Several Republicans who broke ranks with Trump have chosen to exit the re-election race, but Cassidy had put forth an aggressive campaign for a third six-year term, hoping to defy the President's sway over Republican voters.
On voting day, Trump slammed Cassidy on social media as "a disloyal disaster" and "a terrible guy." "Insults only bother me if they come from somebody of character and integrity," Cassidy said after his defeat.
Trump's reported approach to cut to size his rivals in the Republican camp has put the Grand Old Party in a fix, as it is backing incumbent senators in the tussle against Democrats hoping to make gains by tapping on voter resentment.
The US president Trump has also declined to endorse Senator John Cornyn in a Texas primary and Senator Susan Collins in Maine, both of whom, he said, "should never be elected to office again."
Trump has previously pushed Senator Thom Tillis of North Carolina toward an exit from the primary race following a tiff over cuts to healthcare programs.
This has reportedly increased the chance that Roy Cooper, the former Democratic governor, could win the seat, AP reported. Cooper's chances of beating Republican Michael Whatley to flip North Carolina's Senate seat in the 2026 midterm elections have increased, according to a new poll, Newsweek reported.
Earlier in May, several Indiana state senators also tasted defeat after rejecting Trump's redistricting plan, through which Republicans hope to garner more seats in the midterms.
