LaPolitics recently spoke with Louisiana Treasurer John Fleming after he announced his 2026 candidacy for the U.S. Senate.
How do you plan to overcome the fundraising haul that U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy has already accumulated for his reelection?
Fleming: I really don’t think it matters. For instance, when I was elected to state treasurer, I actually raised less money than my Republican opponent. So it’s really about the best candidate and the best message. The only thing that’s important about raising money is that you raise enough to get your message out.
Do you think the relatively small audience of people who are likely to vote in the new party primary will make that job easier?
I think that’s very true. But it’s more than that. The media has changed. When I first ran for Congress in 2008, it was all about regional TV and maybe some radio and mail. But now it’s all about email and social media. It’s about X, and it’s about Truth Social. You can really communicate with people through many different modalities.
Are you confident the party primary would favor you over Cassidy?
Obviously, Sen. Cassidy voted to convict President Trump in the second impeachment during his first administration. And of course, the criteria for that is high crimes and misdemeanors. And there were no crimes at all. There’s no accusation Trump committed any crime relative to Jan. 6, which is what’s in question. Every Republican in this state knows that and they are not happy with Cassidy to say the least.
Why do you say Trump wasn’t accused of a crime? He was caught on a recorded phone call trying to pressure Georgia officials into changing the vote count.
Well, I think it’s clear that he was accused of crimes. I’m not disputing that. But convicted of crimes, all of that is debatable. And the point being that Trump was pursued for all four years through lawfare, case after case after case, where stuff was just made up and bootstrapped to things that made no sense. I don’t think it’s about any crimes. It never was.
It’s been reported that you believe Louisiana can eliminate the income tax without raising revenue through other means. Is that accurate?
No, it’s more complex than that. What the governor has done, and I agree with him, is reduce taxes using a flat tax mechanism. And that gets us half a step towards ending the personal income tax. However, what I disagree with is that nothing was done to lower the cost of government or slow the growth of government or cut wasteful spending. And what I’m encouraging the governor and the Legislature to do is, OK, that was a good try. You made it to first base, but if we’re going to get home, we’re going to have to start dealing with wasteful spending, both in Washington and Louisiana. And then we can go all the way on our cut in personal income tax.
Do you have any thoughts about where significant cuts could be made?
There’s so much cost in the Department of Education and also in the Department of Transportation [and Development], and it’s behind the curtain. The average person in the public does not have access to how that money is spent and how government may be bloated. I can tell you as treasurer, I see money going to entities, particularly nongovernmental entities, that have absolutely no measurement of impact. It’s organizations that [supposedly] do good for people, but you don’t really know whether they’re doing good. There’s no real transparency to the public. So I think there’s a lot we should do with appropriations.
Jeremy Alford publishes LaPolitics Weekly, a newsletter on Louisiana politics, at LaPolitics.com. Follow him on Facebook or X (formerly Twitter). He can be reached at JJA@LaPolitics.com.
