BATON ROUGE — Rep. Julia Letlow said Wednesday that Gov. Jeff Landry has endorsed her candidacy for a U.S. Senate seat.

Letlow is challenging Sen. Bill Cassidy in this year's election. The Republican primary is on May 16. Landry last year urged lawmakers to establish party primaries this year, setting up an in-party challenge for the incumbent. In previous elections, all candidates would have run in a single race.

In a statement released by Letlow's campaign, Landry accused "the D.C. swamp" of spending millions of dollars to lie about Letlow's record. Recent advertising says Letlow failed to disclose stock transactions in a timely manner and that she had supported diversity-related programs at the University of Louisiana-Monroe.

"We need a warrior who stands with the President to Make America Great. And there’s no greater warrior than a Louisiana mom," Landry said in the Letlow press release. "Julia Letlow delivers results, she never flinches, and she has my absolute endorsement and my vote.”

President Donald Trump endorsed Letlow before she announced she would enter the race.

Cassidy's campaign responded to Landry's endorsement by calling the endorsement Letlow's "latest attempt to generate attention" and "distract voters." Last month, Cassidy's campaign complained to the Federal Election Commission that Letlow's team was soliciting "soft" and "hard" contributions simultaneously. 

“This isn’t news. Governor Landry and his team have been working with Liberal Letlow’s campaign for weeks, see the FEC complaint filed for illegal fundraising activities. This is just a shameless attempt to distract from Liberal Letlow’s illegal stock trades and pattern of breaking the law," said Katie Larkin, Cassidy's campaign manager.

State Treasurer John Fleming is also in the GOP primary, along with Mark Spencer of Belle Chasse. 

Fleming said he was contacted regarding a possible job at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 

"Just before announcing that he was leaving the CDC, Dr. Ralph Abraham called me to offer his job as Deputy Director of the CDC to me, presumably so that I would step down from the U.S. Senate campaign. I politely declined of course. Now we find he is chairman of the Letlow campaign."

Fleming said that he believes that Landry is "moving pawns behind the scenes in a desperate attempt to get Julia Letlow elected to the Senate."

"We know that Jeff has been heavily lobbying the Trump campaign team for the endorsement; he is pressuring the Republican Party of Louisiana and the Republican Executive Committees to support and endorse Letlow as well," Fleming said in a statement.

The Democratic Party primary includes Nick Albares and Gary Crockett of New Orleans and Jamie Davis of Ferriday.