President Donald Trump finally got his revenge on Kentucky Rep. Thomas Massie.
The libertarian-leaning iconoclast who has been a hindrance to some of the president’s biggest priorities lost to Trump-endorsed former Navy SEAL Ed Gallrein in Kentucky’s 4th District on Tuesday, in a primary that became the most expensive intraparty House fight on record. It’s the latest in a string of primary victories for the president that cements his viselike grip on the GOP even as his overall approval numbers continue to sag.
In a retribution campaign that has seen Trump fell GOP foes from Indiana to Louisiana, Massie’s race was perhaps his sweetest victory.
Massie has long been an irritant to Trump and House GOP leaders. But his votes against Trump’s signature tax-and-spending package, moves to rein in the president’s war powers over Iran and stewardship of the bipartisan effort to release the Jeffrey Epstein files finally pushed Trump to front a primary challenger.
The president searched for a “warm body” to run against the “third rate Grandstander” and eventually found one in Gallrein, a fifth-generation farmer and failed state Senate candidate. Trump endorsed Gallrein before he got into the race and rallied with him in March. His Defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, promoted Gallrein at an event in the district Monday.
Polls showed a tight race down the home stretch in what had become the fight of Massie’s political life. The president’s intervention united local forces and various factions of the GOP that had long wanted to oust Massie but previously lacked the firepower. And it unleashed a flood of outside spending against Massie that proved too much for the incumbent to overcome.
A pair of pro-Israel super PACs linked to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee and the Republican Jewish Coalition spent more than $9 million targeting the isolationist, who has routinely rejected efforts to financially aid and symbolically support the U.S. ally. Another super PAC stood up by Trump’s top political operatives spent nearly $7 million berating Massie over his votes against the president’s tax cuts, border wall and other priorities. Overall ad spending in the race topped $33 million, per tracking firm AdImpact.
In delivering a death knell to the seven-term representative, the president has effectively silenced his loudest remaining Republican critic in Congress and sent a warning shot against further dissent.
While Massie will remain a thorn in Trump’s side through the end of the year — and likely an even louder one, now — he’ll be replaced by a staunch supporter.
Massie had cast the race in existential terms for the GOP, warning in an interview last month that his loss could further fray the coalition that Republicans are struggling to keep together in the midterms by pushing voters dissatisfied with the president to stay home.
“This is a congressional race. But it’s also somewhat of a national movement,” Massie said. “And it would be bad for Republicans’ prospects in the midterms if I lose.”
Now, Massie’s defeat will be a defining part of Trump’s legacy. And it stands as a sharp rebuke of the isolationist and conservative wings of the GOP that rallied around the incumbent, including prominent figureheads like former Fox News host Tucker Carlson, former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) and Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.).
The race became a microcosm of the conflicts playing out across the Republican Party over foreign interventions, Israel and the influence of its allied super PACs as the GOP starts to splinter over all three. It also drained tens of millions of dollars in GOP resources in a safe red seat as Republican donors fret about the party’s chances in competitive midterm races.