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S u n d ay, J u n e 14, 2026
ELECTION 2026
Letlow’s momentum grows in Senate race
$2.50X
SpaceX La. plans more possible after IPO
Flush exploration company in talks to buy Vermilion land BY ADAM DAIGLE
Acadiana business editor
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U.S. Rep. Julia Letlow, R-Baton Rouge, is considered the favorite in the U.S. Senate race with early voting underway until Saturday in advance of the June 27 runoff election.
But Fleming says not to count him out BY TYLER BRIDGES Staff writer
Gone are the national reporters who flocked to Louisiana to capture the political drama of whether U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-Baton Rouge, could survive President Donald Trump’s attempts to end his political career. Gone, too, is Cassidy after U.S. Rep. Julia Letlow, R-Baton Rouge, rode Trump’s endorsement to first place in the May 16 Republican primary with 45% of the vote, state Treasurer John Fleming ran second with 28%, and the senator finished third with 25% and was eliminated. Letlow remains the favorite in the Senate race with early voting under-
A new Louisiana law bars lawsuits that seek to hold oil and gas companies accountable for climate change. STAFF FILE PHOTO By SOPHIA GERMER
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way until Saturday in advance of the June 27 runoff election. The Republican candidates are generating most of the attention, but farmer Jamie Davis and business owner Gary Crockett are vying on a separate ballot for the Democratic nomination on June 27. The winners of each party runoff will face off in the Nov. 3 general election. And the winner of that election will replace Cassidy. Cassidy’s absence from the June 27 runoff will benefit Fleming, said Woody Jenkins, chair of the East Baton Rouge Parish Republican Party and a fervent Fleming supporter.
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Senate candidate John Fleming said voters are receptive to his message that carbon capture and sequestration will poison waterways and strip ä See SENATE, page 5A landowners of property rights.
If Elon Musk’s SpaceX decides to build a facility in Vermilion Parish, it could have a large amount of cash to do it. SpaceX, Musk’s rocket and artificial intelligence company, hit the public stock market Friday in a blockbuster move that dumped a whole lot of money on a whole lot of people, particularly founder and CEO Musk, who is now considered the world’s first trillionaire. During its initial public offering Thursday, SpaceX sold 556 million shares at an initial price of $135 a share, which was the biggest IPO in history, to raise $75 billion, multiple outlets are reporting. On Friday, shares of stock in SpaceX were trading at $161 at Musk the close of market Friday after rising as high as $175 by midafternoon. That valued the company at more than $2 trillion, exceeding the market capitalizations of other titans of American industry, including Walmart and General Motors combined, the New York Times reported. The company’s president and CEO were on Wall Street on Friday morning to ring the bell to open the Nasdaq Stock Market. Musk also rang a bell from Texas. SpaceX operates about 9,500 of the 14,000 or so satellites orbiting Earth, providing the company’s Starlink internet service to customers worldwide. Earlier this year, it notified federal regulators of intentions to launch up to 1 million low-Earth orbit satellites, part of a larger plan to operate AI data centers from space. The prospectus for the SpaceX stock debut shows spending at a massive scale — greater than the economic output of some countries — and about to grow much larger as Musk races to make good on his promise to hurl people to distant planets, The Associated Press reported. Money to be raised in the IPO will help finance those futuristic, fantastical plans.
ä See SPACEX, page 5A
Louisiana banning lawsuits over climate change Law seeks to protect oil and gas companies
lawsuits against oil and gas companies over the harms of climate change. The Louisiana Energy Protection Act, written by state Rep. Brett GeyBY ALEX LUBBEN mann, R-Lake Charles, is aimed at preventing lawsuits filed by states and Staff writer local jurisdictions in other parts of the Louisiana has joined a handful of U.S. from playing out in Louisiana. Republican states that have recently Across the country, about 30 lawsuits passed legislation aimed at banning seeking to hold industry to account for
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the impacts of climate change have been weaving their way through the legal system, but none has been brought in Louisiana. The lawsuits seek to hold oil and gas companies accountable for the impacts of sea level rise, extreme weather events, wildfires and flooding,
ä See BILL, page 4A
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