Tony Perkins: Cassidy will have ‘hard time’ in Senate runoff

Family Research Council President Tony Perkins said he likely won’t support Rep. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) in a runoff against Sen. Mary Landrieu, even if the race would decide control of the Senate.  

“I don’t see myself supporting Cassidy,” Perkins told The Hill at a FreedomWorks election-night event. “The only way I would support him, even if the Senate was hanging in the balance, would be with assurances from him on positions and to backtrack on some of the bad votes that he’s taken in Congress.”

Perkins views Cassidy, the three-term congressman, as a “moderate” who doesn’t have a base that can carry him to victory in a runoff.  He supported Col. Rob Maness, a Tea Party candidate who ran to Cassidy’s right, and said that Cassidy will have a “hard time” winning a runoff because of his lack of conservative chops. 

{mosads}“Here’s the reality in Louisiana: a moderate does not beat a liberal,” Perkins said. “That’s been the problem, that’s the problem I see that Bill Cassidy has. He was a Democrat, he supported Mary Landrieu when he first ran. He voted for liberal policies.”

A number of news outlets have projected a runoff between Cassidy and Landrieu, because no candidate topped 50 percent of the votes. The runoff will take place on Dec. 6.

Maness had been polling well behind the top two candidates, although Perkins believes that he would have been the best candidate to take down Landrieu. Perkins said he won’t vote for Landrieu in the runoff, and won’t support Cassidy without “assurances.” 

“We support conservatives that are going to advance our core values,” Perkins said. “Someone that has a track record of working against those core value issues is not someone that I’m interested in supporting.