Sankalp savera.Julia Letlow didn’t expect to be on a ballot this Saturday. Three and half months ago, her husband had won the election for Louisiana’s 5th District in an early December runoff.
But he never made it to Congress, dying from complications of Covid-19 before he was sworn in.
Letlow, a university administrator who wrote a doctoral dissertation on grief, had to make a quick decision. She jumped into the race in mid-January after the governor called a special election to replace her husband, the late Rep.-elect Luke Letlow.
The first-time candidate has the advantage of a campaign team already in place, and she’s now the front-runner in a 12-person field, poised to become the first Republican woman elected to Congress from Louisiana and to bolster the already record-breaking 30 Republican women in the House this year.
“It’s definitely different being the candidate than it is the spouse, but nothing that I wasn’t used to already,” said Letlow, who campaigned alongside her husband — a former Hill staffer — across the rural district’s 24 parishes when he ran for the safe Republican seat last year.
Under Louisiana’s jungle primary system, candidates of all parties run together on one ballot. If no one receives a majority of the vote — which may be hard to do with such a crowded race — the top two vote-getters will advance to a runoff. Letlow raised $683,000 by the end of February, with Democrat Sandra Christophe raising the next highest amount of money, about $75,000.
Running in this deeply conservative district, which covers northeastern Louisiana and extends to the tip of the boot, Letlow has racked up widespread support from prominent Republicans — and not just from her home state. Former President Donald Trump endorsed her earlier this month, and she’s also received donations from some members who voted to impeach the former President, including Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney, the No. 3 House Republican.
Letlow told CNN she would have joined the majority of the House Republican Conference in objecting to the certification of the presidential election on January 6, and she supports her state party’s decision to censure GOP Sen. Bill Cassidy for his vote to convict Trump in his impeachment trial earlier this year.
In the wake of her husband’s death, Letlow received calls from both Trump and President Joe Biden.
“It was special because he lost his wife and daughter in a car accident,” she said of her conversation with Biden.
“He said, ‘You know, where you sit today, I’ve sat and I know that pain’ — and there’s nothing like speaking to someone who has been where you’ve been and understands that pain that you’re in,” Letlow said. “And so his words resonated with me on a very deep level.” She said Trump was also “thoughtful with his words,” expressing his condolences.
Unique background
While running for Congress hadn’t been in her immediate plans, Letlow had given some thought to seeking public office, and her husband had asked her to promise him that she’d consider it someday if the opportunity arose.
“I probably was going to start a little bit smaller scale,” Letlow said.
