{"id":211217,"date":"2026-05-20T17:02:49","date_gmt":"2026-05-20T17:02:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/trump-critic-thomas-massie-defeated-in-kentucky-republican-house-primary-the-guardian\/"},"modified":"2026-05-20T17:02:49","modified_gmt":"2026-05-20T17:02:49","slug":"trump-critic-thomas-massie-defeated-in-kentucky-republican-house-primary-the-guardian","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/trump-critic-thomas-massie-defeated-in-kentucky-republican-house-primary-the-guardian\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump critic Thomas Massie defeated in Kentucky Republican House primary – The Guardian"},"content":{"rendered":"

In biggest primary night so far this year, key races were held in Pennsylvania, Georgia, Alabama, Oregon and Idaho
Midterm primaries \u2013 live updates<\/a>
Donald Trump displayed his supremacy over the Republican party on Tuesday when voters in northern Kentucky rejected the maverick congressman Thomas Massie<\/a> in favour of the US president\u2019s hand-picked challenger.
Ed Gallrein, a retired Navy Seal and farmer who was recruited into the race by Trump, defeated the seven-term incumbent in a primary election in Kentucky\u2019s fourth congressional district<\/a> in what the president\u2019s allies framed as a test of whether dissent could still exist inside today\u2019s Republican party.
The election took place as voters in five other states \u2013 Pennsylvania<\/a>, Georgia, Alabama, Oregon and Idaho \u2013 went to the polls to decide their nominees for the November general election, in what was the biggest primary night of the year so far.
In Georgia\u2019s gubernatorial race<\/a>, the lieutenant governor, Burt Jones, and billionaire Rick Jackson advanced to a runoff for the GOP nomination, locking out Brad Raffensperger, the secretary of state, in what amounted to another defeat of a prominent Trump critic. The Republican nominee will face former Atlanta mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, who won the Democratic nomination outright. In Alabama, Trump ally Tommy Tuberville won the Republican primary for governor, while former senator Doug Jones secured the Democratic nomination.
Meanwhile, in battleground Pennsylvania, voters chose their nominees for a string of competitive House races<\/a> that could help decide the majority in November, while Democrats elevated Chris Rabb, self-described as \u201caggressively anti\u2011establishment\u201d in a closely watched primary<\/a> that became a microcosm of the party\u2019s internal struggles.
Earlier on Tuesday, Trump endorsed Ken Paxton<\/a>, the scandal-plagued Texas attorney general running for Senate, in a primary runoff against incumbent John Cornyn, infuriating some in his party.
In Kentucky, Massie now joins the ranks of Liz Cheney, Adam Kinzinger, Jeff Flake, Mitt Romney and other elected Republicans<\/a> who were either ousted or decided to retire because of their party\u2019s capitulation to Trump.
Over the weekend, Senator Bill Cassidy, who voted in favour of Trump\u2019s conviction after the 6 January insurrection, lost a primary<\/a> in Louisiana after the president backed challenger Julia Letlow.
Massie, a libertarian-minded conservative, repeatedly broke with the president over military action against Iran, government spending and the release of the Jeffrey Epstein files. He spent months insisting that Kentucky<\/a> Republicans valued independence over obedience. Instead, voters in the deeply conservative fourth congressional district appeared to conclude that loyalty to Trump mattered more.
For months, Trump had treated the contest as a personal vendetta.
He branded Massie a \u201cmoron\u201d, a \u201cnut job\u201d and a \u201closer\u201d, dispatched top advisers Chris LaCivita and Tony Fabrizio to run a Super Pac against him, and even travelled to Kentucky himself for a rally denouncing the congressman as \u201cdisloyal to the United States of America\u201d.
Trump did not let up after Massie\u2019s defeat. \u201cHe was a bad guy,\u201d the president told reporters. \u201cHe deserves to lose.\u201d
Speaking to supporters on Tuesday evening, Massie said he had called Gallrein to concede.
\u201cWe\u2019ve been honorable the whole time and we\u2019re going to stay that way,\u201d he said, issuing a plea for \u201cbasic decency\u201d in politics.
In his remarks, Massie said that Tuesday marked six months since the passage of the Epstein Files Transparency Act, which forced the justice department to make public millions of documents related to its investigation into the late sex offender.
\u201cWe\u2019ve taken out two dozen CEOs, an ambassador, a prince, a prime minister, a minister of culture \u2013 and that was just six months,\u201d Massie said, listing some of the most high-profile resignations that resulted from the release of the files. Smiling, he added: \u201cI\u2019ve got seven months left in Congress.\u201d
Gallrein campaigned almost entirely as a loyal foot soldier for the president\u2019s agenda. He accused Massie of suffering from \u201cTrump derangement syndrome\u201d and pledged to \u201cstand shoulder to shoulder\u201d with the White House.
The Hill website reported that Kentucky\u2019s fourth congressional district became the most expensive House primary battle in history, citing figures from AdImpact<\/a> that showed spending of $25.6m in television, radio and digital advertising.
\u201cIt\u2019s not just the most expensive. This thing went on longer than Vietnam,\u201d Massie said. \u201cWhy did this race get so expensive? Because they decided to buy the seat.\u201d
Gallrein portrayed Massie as a politician who had drifted from Trump\u2019s Make America Great Again movement despite benefiting from it politically for years. Maga Kentucky, the Super Pac backing Gallrein, flooded the district with attack ads accusing Massie of siding with Democrats<\/a> and obstructing the president\u2019s agenda.
Massie argued he was defending the very principles Trump once championed \u2013 opposition to endless wars, runaway deficits and government secrecy. But his message increasingly struggled to compete against the emotional force of Trump\u2019s endorsement in the sprawling district, which stretches from Cincinnati\u2019s southern suburbs to the Appalachian foothills.
Gallrein will now enter the general election as the overwhelming favourite in a district that has not elected a Democrat in two decades.
Meanwhile, Trump-backed representative Andy Barr easily won a contested Republican primary for Senate in Kentucky to replace the long-serving former Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell, who is retiring.<\/p>\n

source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In biggest primary night so far this year, key races were held in Pennsylvania, Georgia, Alabama, Oregon and IdahoMidterm primaries \u2013 live updatesDonald Trump displayed his supremacy over the Republican party on Tuesday when voters in northern Kentucky rejected the maverick congressman Thomas Massie in favour of the US president\u2019s hand-picked challenger.Ed Gallrein, a retired […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":211218,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-211217","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-us","8":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211217","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=211217"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211217\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/211218"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=211217"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=211217"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=211217"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}