Bill Cassidy was born in Highland Park, Illinois, and grew up in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. He earned his medical degree from Louisiana State University School of Medicine and practiced as a gastroenterologist for many years, including work at Earl K. Long Medical Center treating uninsured and underinsured patients. Cassidy served in the Louisiana State Senate and was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 2008 before winning Louisiana's U.S. Senate seat in 2014 and being re-elected in 2020.
Cassidy chairs the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee and also serves on the Senate Finance and Energy and Natural Resources committees. He has been a leading Republican voice on health care policy, drawing on his medical background to engage substantively on insurance markets, drug pricing, and public health. Cassidy drew national attention in 2021 when he voted to convict former President Trump at his second impeachment trial — one of only seven Republican senators to do so — and was subsequently censured by the Louisiana Republican Party.