Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) misplaced Tuesday night time’s Home main to President Trump’s hand-picked challenger, delivering one other victory to the Make America Nice Once more motion
Trump-endorsed challenger Ed Gallrein, a farmer and retired Navy SEAL, triumphed over Massie within the Bluegrass State’s Fourth Congressional District, 54.4% to 45.6%, when the Related Press referred to as the race somewhat earlier than 8 p.m.
Trump repeatedly urged his supporters to oust the seven-term congressman after Massie broke with the president on key votes and led the cost to launch the information on the late intercourse offender Jeffrey Epstein. On Tuesday’s main day, Trump took to X to name Massie a “Horrible Congressman” and praised Gallrein as “a real American Patriot.”
Massie’s defeat got here on the heels of Trump’s profitable intervention within the Louisiana Republican Senate main in opposition to Sen. Invoice Cassidy (R-La.), who had voted to convict the forty fifth president following his impeachment for incitement of riot following the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot.
And Trump has already signaled that Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) might be subsequent on his goal checklist by the point the Centennial State holds its main June 30.
The Kentucky contest will go down as the costliest main race in US historical past, with greater than $32 million spent on political advertisements, based on the agency AdImpact.
Trump-aligned teams like MAGA KY in addition to pro-Israel teams such because the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) and Republican Jewish Coalition (RJC) have spent tens of millions of {dollars} looking for to unseat Massie over his votes in opposition to assist for the Jewish state — in addition to the president’s agenda extra broadly.
Gallrein, who unsuccessfully ran for Kentucky state Senate in 2024, challenged Massie after the president and his allies made the seven-term incumbent a goal for removing over his opposition to the One Massive Lovely Invoice, Trump’s signature tax-and-spending laws.
The MAGA KY tremendous PAC even paid for a man-made intelligence-created advert accusing Massie of being “caught in a throuple” with “Squad” Reps. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) for voting in opposition to Trump’s tax cuts and funding for his border wall. Massie responded by calling the spot “defamatory.”
Lately, Massie has voted with “Squad” pols in opposition to billions of {dollars} in US funding for Israel’s missile protection techniques and in opposition to resolutions condemning Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, bloodbath of 1,200 in Israel — together with dozens of US residents.
Trump has touted Gallrein, a retired captain within the US Navy, as straight out of “central casting” and “a real America First Patriot” and lashed out at Massie for “making life very simple for the Radical Left.”
“He’s the Worst ‘Republican’ Congressman in Historical past, voting in opposition to Tax Cuts, the Wall, Legislation Enforcement, and in favor of the Transgender Mutilization of our Youngsters, Males taking part in in Girls’s Sports activities, and so many extra horrible issues,” the president mentioned in a Reality Social put up Monday.
The president’s ire in opposition to Massie stretches again to at the least 2020, when the Kentucky rep was the lone opponent of a $2 trillion COVID-19 stimulus bundle, incomes him the Trump moniker “third-rate Grandstander.”
Massie additionally made worldwide headlines final 12 months when he spearheaded laws compelling the Justice Division to reveal investigative supplies on Epstein, the accused intercourse trafficker who died whereas awaiting federal trial in 2019, and his convicted confederate Ghislaine Maxwell.
Trump gained assist within the 2024 presidential election primarily based on pledges to launch the Epstein information, however the concern rapidly grew to become a political headache for the administration as a result of forty seventh president’s previous affiliation with the deceased intercourse offender within the Nineties and early 2000s — although no proof has emerged that Epstein blackmailed rich or outstanding people or that any others have been implicated in his crimes.
Massie had responded to Trump’s onslaughts by positioning himself as extra aligned with Trump’s agenda than Gallrein, needling his opponent as “Woke Eddie” and noting how the challenger shifted his political affiliation from Republican to unbiased after the forty fifth president received the White Home.
Gallrein then modified his social gathering registration again to the GOP after former President Joe Biden was elected in 2020.
“I’m not working in opposition to President Trump. The general public voting for me assist President Trump, like I do,” Massie advised Fox Information’ “America’s Newsroom” hours earlier than the polls closed.
“What endorsements I’ve gotten are from the pro-life teams, the pro-Second Modification teams, as a result of my opponent, he received’t debate,” Massie went on. “He received’t fill out the types to say the place he’s on abortion, the place he’s on gun management … I’m working in opposition to an ‘AI’ candidate with out the ‘I’. He’s created AI advertisements. He does his social media posts with AI and he hasn’t been to a single debate. He skipped all eight of them. He’s scared of debating, and other people don’t know who he’s. There’s no enthusiasm for him.”
