logo
Louisiana's Bill Cassidy makes major campaign announcement in one of most watched elections

Louisiana's Bill Cassidy makes major campaign announcement in one of most watched elections

Yahoo7 days ago
Republican Louisiana Sen. Bill Cassidy will officially begin his 2026 reelection campaign Friday in what promises to be one of the most watched primaries in the country.
Cassidy will kick off his campaign with a noon announcement in Metairie.
'I've spent the last 10 years working and winning for the people of Louisiana," Cassidy said in an exclusive preview statement with USA Today Network. "Most recently, I partnered with President Trump, and he signed my HALT Fentanyl Act into law.
'That's what working and winning looks like — delivering conservative results, saving lives and bringing commonsense solutions home. I'm running for reelection to keep fighting for our state and the hardworking, conservative values that make Louisiana strong.'
Cassidy has a staggering $9 million cash on hand to defend his seat, but he'll have to fend off fellow Republicans like state Treasurer John Fleming and state Sen. Blake Miguez who question his MAGA credentials because of Cassidy's vote to convict Trump during his 2021 impeachment trial.
But Cassidy has aligned himself closely with Trump during the president's second term in an effort to regain the support of the president's MAGA legion.
Cassidy noted that he was the swing vote for approving two of Trump's most controversial cabinet nominees — Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.
He also championed Trump's "Big, Beautiful" tax and spending bill in the Senate.
Cassidy was an architect of the bipartisan $1.2 trillion Infrastructure Act and author of the law the end surprise medical billing.
He will compete in the state's first closed primary election in decades in April.
More: In Louisiana, Bill Cassidy raises mountain of cash to defend seat against MAGA Republicans
Greg Hilburn covers state politics for the USA TODAY Network of Louisiana. Follow him on Twitter @GregHilburn1.
This article originally appeared on Shreveport Times: Louisiana Senator Bill Cassidy makes major campaign announcement
Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

China Defends Buying Russian Oil After Trump's Tariff Threat
China Defends Buying Russian Oil After Trump's Tariff Threat

Yahoo

time15 minutes ago

  • Yahoo

China Defends Buying Russian Oil After Trump's Tariff Threat

(Bloomberg) -- China said its imports of Russian oil are justified, pushing back against US threats of new tariffs after Washington slapped secondary levies on India for buying energy from Moscow. All Hail the Humble Speed Hump Three Deaths Reported as NYC Legionnaires' Outbreak Spreads Mayor Asked to Explain $1.4 Billion of Wasted Johannesburg Funds Major Istanbul Projects Are Stalling as City Leaders Sit in Jail What England's New National Cycling Network Needs to Get Rolling 'It is legitimate and lawful for China to conduct normal economic, trade and energy cooperation with all countries around the world, including Russia,' the Chinese Foreign Ministry said Friday in a statement to Bloomberg News. 'We will continue to adopt reasonable energy security measures in accordance with our national interests.' Donald Trump said earlier this week he could punish China with additional tariffs over its purchases of Russian oil, saying 'that may happen.' The US president has also signaled his interest in brokering a peace deal in the Russia-Ukraine conflict and views pressure on big Russian trade partners to be part of that effort. Russian President Vladimir Putin met this week with Trump's envoy Steve Witkoff for nearly three hours of talks in the Kremlin. Trump on Wednesday said there was a 'very good chance' he'd meet with Putin, though cautioned there had not yet been a 'breakthrough' in the talks. Chinese President Xi Jinping welcomed direct communications between Putin and Trump on Friday during his first known call with the Russian leader in months. Xi also set out China's position on Ukraine to Putin, describing the situation as a set of complex issues with no simple solutions, according to Chinese state broadcaster CCTV. Although Trump has warned over China's purchases of Russian oil, his top adviser Peter Navarro played down the likelihood of new tariffs on Chinese exports, saying higher duties 'may hurt the US.' When asked about Trump's comments on Thursday, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told Fox News tariffs on China over oil purchases 'could be on the table at some point.' China's imports from Russia edged up in July to just over $10 billion — the highest level since March — according to the latest customs data. But overall this year, imports from Russia are still down 7.7% compared with the same period in 2024. US-China ties have steadied after the two sides agreed to put sky-high tariffs on hold as they seek to negotiate an agreement. Trump said this week he was getting 'very close' to a deal with with China to extend the truce, which is due to expire Tuesday. (Updates with Xi-Putin talks starting in fifth paragraph.) The Pizza Oven Startup With a Plan to Own Every Piece of the Pie Digital Nomads Are Transforming Medellín's Housing Russia's Secret War and the Plot to Kill a German CEO It's Only a Matter of Time Until Americans Pay for Trump's Tariffs The Game Starts at 8. The Robbery Starts at 8:01 ©2025 Bloomberg L.P.

Stock market today: Dow, S&P 500, Nasdaq futures edge higher as Wall Street eyes Trump moves on Fed
Stock market today: Dow, S&P 500, Nasdaq futures edge higher as Wall Street eyes Trump moves on Fed

Yahoo

time15 minutes ago

  • Yahoo

Stock market today: Dow, S&P 500, Nasdaq futures edge higher as Wall Street eyes Trump moves on Fed

US stock futures edged higher on Friday as Wall Street assessed President Trump's nomination of Stephen Miran to the Federal Reserve Board of Governors and took in his new regime of sweeping tariffs. Futures attached to the Dow Jones Industrial Average (YM=F) rose 0.3%, while those on the benchmark S&P 500 (ES=F) gained 0.4%. Futures tied to the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 (NQ=F) also gained 0.4%. Gold futures (GC=F) in New York rose above London prices on Friday after the FT reported that the US now plans to put tariffs on gold bar imports. In corporate earnings premarket, Pinterest (PINS) tumbled on a profit miss, while Block (XYZ) jumped after reporting upbeat guidance. Shares in Expedia (EXPE) soared 17% on Friday before the bell after raising its full-year bookings forecast. Stocks traded mixed during the day on Thursday as investors assessed a reshaped trade landscape after Trump's deadline for countries to strike deals on tariffs expired, setting in motion higher duties on dozens of countries worldwide. The indexes trimmed earlier losses following Trump's nomination of Stephen Miran, current chairman of the Council of Economic Advisors, to serve on the Fed board. Read more: The latest on Trump's tariffs Miran's nomination must pass Senate approval, and it's unclear how long that might take with lawmakers on August recess. Trump's decision on Miran also underscored his search for the next Fed chair. He has talked up the "two Kevins" — current economic adviser Hassett and former Fed governor Warsh — and a report on Thursday said current governor Christopher Waller is seen as the favorite by Trump's team. Amid all the jockeying, about 90% of bets are on the current Fed to cut rates in September. This week has been a bumpy ride for Wall Street. Monday opened with markets recovering from a disappointing slew of job data that stoked fears of broader economic troubles and while upping those rate bets. Corporate earnings and the question of how companies like Apple might weather Trump's latest tariffs largely drove investor sentiment throughout the week. Under Armour forecasts downbeat quarterly sales, shares drop Under Armour (UA) stock slumped 12% before the bell on Friday after the sportswear maker forecast second-quarter revenue below Wall Street estimates. The company is grappling with muted demand in North America due to still-high inflation and tariff uncertainty. Reuters reports: Read more here. New York gold futures spike over spot price after tariff shock Gold futures (GC=F) in New York rose above London prices after the FT reported that the US now plans to put tariffs on 1kg gold bar imports. Bloomberg News reports: Read more here. Oil heads for worst run since 2021 as traders discount US curbs Oil is heading for its longest losing run since 2021, as markets digested the US efforts to try and end the war in Ukraine and whether this would not impact overall supplies, alongside Trump's tariffs on India due to its purchase of Russian crude oil. Bloomberg News reports: Read more here. Under Armour forecasts downbeat quarterly sales, shares drop Under Armour (UA) stock slumped 12% before the bell on Friday after the sportswear maker forecast second-quarter revenue below Wall Street estimates. The company is grappling with muted demand in North America due to still-high inflation and tariff uncertainty. Reuters reports: Read more here. Under Armour (UA) stock slumped 12% before the bell on Friday after the sportswear maker forecast second-quarter revenue below Wall Street estimates. The company is grappling with muted demand in North America due to still-high inflation and tariff uncertainty. Reuters reports: Read more here. New York gold futures spike over spot price after tariff shock Gold futures (GC=F) in New York rose above London prices after the FT reported that the US now plans to put tariffs on 1kg gold bar imports. Bloomberg News reports: Read more here. Gold futures (GC=F) in New York rose above London prices after the FT reported that the US now plans to put tariffs on 1kg gold bar imports. Bloomberg News reports: Read more here. Oil heads for worst run since 2021 as traders discount US curbs Oil is heading for its longest losing run since 2021, as markets digested the US efforts to try and end the war in Ukraine and whether this would not impact overall supplies, alongside Trump's tariffs on India due to its purchase of Russian crude oil. Bloomberg News reports: Read more here. Oil is heading for its longest losing run since 2021, as markets digested the US efforts to try and end the war in Ukraine and whether this would not impact overall supplies, alongside Trump's tariffs on India due to its purchase of Russian crude oil. Bloomberg News reports: Read more here. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data

Trump's crypto embrace opens the door to a Wall Street overhaul
Trump's crypto embrace opens the door to a Wall Street overhaul

Politico

time18 minutes ago

  • Politico

Trump's crypto embrace opens the door to a Wall Street overhaul

Editor's note: Morning Money is a free version of POLITICO Pro Financial Services morning newsletter, which is delivered to our subscribers each morning at 5:15 a.m. The POLITICO Pro platform combines the news you need with tools you can use to take action on the day's biggest stories. Act on the news with POLITICO Pro. Quick Fix Wall Street is bracing for a clash pitting upstart cryptocurrency firms against traditional financial heavyweights. At stake could be nothing less than the future of stock trading. Crypto behemoths — think Coinbase, Robinhood and Kraken — have set their sights on the $62 trillion equity market. They want to offer investors the ability to trade 'tokenized' versions of stocks like Apple, Tesla and JPMorgan Chase. That means those assets could trade cheaply around the clock and around the world, not just when the stock market is open, they say. Their efforts are setting the stage for what could be the biggest regulatory showdown in a generation: Rewriting U.S. stock trading rules in a way that could vault crypto companies into the highest echelons of the financial services industry. Driving this transformation is President Donald Trump, who has openly embraced crypto since taking back the White House, placing industry allies in top regulatory positions, igniting a run-up in token prices and sparking new optimism about its future in the U.S. Wall Street traditionalists, who once downplayed the threat of crypto, are fighting back. They are lobbying the Securities and Exchange Commission and demanding that the new entrants play by the same rules as the established stalwarts, such as requirements that they register with the agency and certain investor protections around stock trading. But some firms are also hedging their bets by accepting crypto. 'Many in traditional finance mistakenly believed that the crypto regulatory debate was really about crypto,' said Tyler Gellasch, a former SEC official who now leads an investor advocacy group. 'It's not.' If traditional finance, or TradFi for short, gets its way, tokenized stocks would be treated the same as run-of-the-mill stocks, which means they would look and trade no differently than shares do today. But if some of the upstarts get their way, crypto could benefit from a looser set of trading rules tailored to their business models. That could splinter the market, critics say. One pool of money would trade crypto versions of stocks while another would trade the old-fashioned way, which could make both sides vulnerable to more price swings, they say. 'Creating loopholes in traditional markets in the name of crypto is a helluva gamble to take with markets relied upon by millions of American retirees, college savers and businesses,' Gellasch said. The crypto industry's push revolves around what digital asset enthusiasts call tokenization, which is effectively the process of putting assets like stocks on the blockchain. In their eyes, the blockchain — or, to those of you not steeped in crypto jargon, the technology that undergirds digital assets — is inevitably bound to take over financial markets and replace their often decades-old infrastructures. Equity tokenization 'opens up whole new opportunities for financing and trading,' said DRW founder and CEO Don Wilson, whose Chicago trading firm is a giant in both crypto and other traditional markets. 'Ten years out, we're not even going to talk about it as tokenized equities. We're not going to use that phrase.' Tokenized stocks have been on the crypto industry's to-do list for years. But it wasn't until Trump — a one-time crypto scourge turned industry champion — came back to Washington that firms dove in with full force. Coinbase, the largest crypto exchange in the U.S., and other firms are seeking the SEC's blessing to go ahead despite lingering questions about the products' permissibility under existing law. Others, like Robinhood and Kraken, are taking a slower approach, focusing their attention on overseas markets, an acknowledgment that regulating tokenized shares remains an open question in the U.S. Either way, tokenized stocks will require some help from the SEC — and that's where the fight begins. A pack of traditional finance heavyweights including Citadel Securities, the trading powerhouse owned by GOP megadonor Ken Griffin, have started sounding the alarm about the SEC offering a workaround to its existing rules so that certain companies can offer tokenized stocks. Fundamentally, they say, tokenized shares are no different than traditional ones and regulating them in a new manner could create an unlevel playing field and split the market. 'Policymakers definitely have to come in and make adjustments, but what we don't want to see is suggesting that because something's using one form of technology for the same product, it's somehow treated differently than another form of technology,' Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association CEO Kenneth Bentsen Jr. said. 'That seems nonsensical to us.' A person close to Robinhood said upending the existing apparatus and rules around stock trading overnight 'isn't realistic.' But crypto firms, the person added, do need 'some relief from the existing rules to make it work.' The SEC isn't showing its hand yet. Last week, Chair Paul Atkins said he asked staff at the Wall Street regulator to work with companies 'to provide relief where appropriate to assure that Americans are not left behind' before suggesting the existing rules around stock trading in the U.S. could soon undergo a massive facelift. 'Whether an incumbent or a new entrant, the SEC welcomes all market participants who are hungry to innovate,' he said. Crypto already scored an important victory last month when Trump signed a bill creating a regulatory framework for a type of token pegged to the U.S. dollar known as stablecoins. 'The banks got absolutely rolled on the stablecoin bill and are now facing enormous amounts of quickly moving, unfair competition,' said Corey Frayer, who served as former SEC Chair Gary Gensler's crypto adviser. 'Wall Street is either going to learn that lesson and be very vocal to make sure that everybody has to play by the same rules, or they're going to watch the SEC destroy the goose that laid their golden egg.' And yet, eating Wall Street's lunch is never actually that simple. TradFi firms have long had a knack for adapting to new trends, albeit perhaps not at the quickest rate. And throwing money at the problem is always an option, which could result in a wave of deals and, ironically, make those legacy firms the next generation of crypto giants. Some major TradFi players like BlackRock have already jumped into the tokenization frenzy. And whether everyday investors actually want to hold blockchain-based versions of Apple, Tesla and JPMorgan Chase shares remains an open question. After all, crypto, despite the headlines, remains a niche business. Just 8 percent of Americans reported using crypto in any way in 2024, according to the Federal Reserve, down from 10 percent two years earlier. Happy Friday — For all things markets, reach out to Declan at dharty@ And for econ policy thoughts, Wall Street tips, personnel moves or general insights, email Sam at ssutton@ We'll see you next Friday. Driving the Day St. Louis Fed President Alberto Musalem speaks at Mississippi Delta event on financial well-being at 10:20 a.m. … And on SATURDAY at 8:15 a.m. Vice Chair for Supervision Michelle Bowman will deliver remarks on the economic outlook and community banking at a Kansas Bankers Association event... Puerto Rico The Trump administration jettisoned five members of the Financial Oversight and Management Board for Puerto Rico amid a protracted legal battle with bond holders over the local power utility's multi-billion dollar bankruptcy. Gloria Gonzalez, a deputy energy editor at POLITICO, spoke with Sam about how upheaval at 'La Junta,' as the unpopular financial board is known locally, will impact bond holders and Puerto Ricans' utility bills. La Junta, which oversees Puerto Rico's finances, has refused to pay more than $2.6 billion to settle bond holders' claims; any more would force the territory's residents to pay even more for service from one of the most expensive and unreliable grids in the U.S. Meanwhile, investors are refusing to budge on taking less than the roughly $12 billion they say they're owed. 'The court fight has been going on for years. Mediation efforts have gone nowhere. It became clear recently that the board was not willing to change its position and offer more money to settle the debt despite unfavorable appellate court rulings,' Gonzalez said. Congressional Democrats hammered bond holders at a recent hearing — which caught the attention of powerful MAGA activist Laura Loomer — and the White House canned most of the seven-member board days later. The expectation is that whoever Trump nominates as replacements 'will be more favorable to the bondholders' case,' Gonzalez said. But the financial and economic effects go beyond those claims, she added. 'The board oversees Puerto Rico's finances and has to sign off on major actions such as proposed government budgets and critical infrastructure projects,' she said. With the board now unable to hold a quorum, recovery and reconstruction efforts from Hurricane Maria in 2017 will be further delayed. What's more, if the bond holders are successful, it would likely increase the energy burden on Puerto Rican residents and businesses and contribute to more migration off the island. 'It's incredibly challenging for the territory to sell itself as a place to come do business when it does not have a reliable power system.' Macro Talking Points The implements of modern statecraft are now largely financial and economic — tariffs, sanctions, investment restrictions and export controls. Those policies throw up powerful economic barriers and they are difficult to unwind. Just as importantly, there are no rules of engagement, said Daleep Singh, a former top adviser to President Joe Biden on the global economy and national security. 'If we don't have a playbook or a doctrine to guide why, when, how and to what extent we use these tools, then we are going to have a more fractured global economy,' said Singh, who's now the vice chair, chief global economist and head of global macroeconomic research at PGIM Fixed Income. 'We are going to have rival blocs. We'll have escalating retaliation. We'll have increasing weaponization of interdependence, and we'll have an erosion of trust in U.S. leadership.' Singh said the Biden administration's move to freeze Russian central bank assets following the invasion of Ukraine— a decision he helped craft — represented a turning point that merits a reassessment of the U.S.'s reliance on coercive economic levers to apply pressure on foreign adversaries, and what guardrails are needed to dictate their future use. That decision 'was made almost improvisationally — and that's a self-critique, more than anything else,' he said. 'We didn't really have the capacity in the moment, the crucible moment, to think about the equilibrium effects five and 10 years out, and are we net better off for making this decision?' As Singh warned in a recent essay published by Foreign Affairs, the long-term danger of continuing with that improvisational approach to applying economic penalties is that it will become self-defeating — and not just for the U.S. 'We'll have a less prosperous and less stable world,' he said. The Rest The Fed — Trump will nominate Council of Economic Advisers Chair Stephen Miran to outgoing Federal Reserve Gov. Adriana Kugler's seat, Sam reports. Meanwhile, Bloomberg's Saleha Mohsin writes that Fed Gov. Christopher Waller is now the favorite among the president's advisers. Intel — Trump called for the ouster of Intel's Lip-Bu Tan. The CEO of the struggling chipmaker was already facing challenges from his board, per The WSJ's Lauren Thomas. Two and twenty and 401(k)s — The president signed an executive order on Thursday to allow retirement accounts to invest in private markets and crypto assets, per Declan. Trade — As dozens of countries wrestle with Trump's new tariff regime, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said he expects China will be given more time to negotiate. Banking — Trump also signed his long-awaited 'debanking' order, directing federal regulators to punish banks that illegally discriminate against conservatives with fines and other penalties, writes Michael Stratford. Separately, a federal judge ruled that the Fed's longstanding cap on debit card swipe fees is illegal.

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into a world of global content with local flavor? Download Daily8 app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store