President Donald Trump's "One Big Beautiful Bill" is awaiting action in the United States Senate after receiving House passage by one vote.
With an election year coming up next year, does Louisiana Senator Bill Cassidy have a choice other than supporting President Trump's spending bill?
"Not really," says JMC Analytics pollster John Couvillon. "He's going to be facing a Republican primary."
According to Couvillon, Sen. Cassidy (R-Baton Rouge) has to support President Trump's agenda if he wants any shot of surviving next April's primary.
"Seventy to eighty percent of those who vote in that primary are going to be hardcore political activist types, probably 70 to 80 percent registered Republicans," Couvillon said. "That fact alone, I'm sure, has to weigh heavily in Sen. Cassidy's decision to what extent he toes the Donald Trump line."
On top of that, Couvillon notes that those voters will hold Cassidy's vote to convict Trump for inciting the January 6th attack on the Capitol against him.
"That really doesn't give you much margin of error for disagreeing with the president on other issues."
Couvillon says that miniscule margin of error will likely force Cassidy to vote "yes"... even if Trump's spending plan pulls funding for programs that benefit Louisianans.
"The question is: who wants to give up his or her favorite program, and that's the complications always occur in politics," Couvillion said. "You do not want to have as something he's got to defend that he voted against the 'Big Beautiful Bill,' which means he's against the administration, and you know as well as I do that's how the political ads would go if he were to vote 'no' on it."
