By Jeff Louderback
Contributing Writer
HEBRON, Ky. — Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., lost his Republican primary on Tuesday to former Navy SEAL Ed Gallrein.
President Donald Trump had endorsed Gallrein as part of his effort to get Massie removed from Congress.
Gallrein had tallied 54% of the votes compared to 45% for Massie when The Associated Press called the race at 7:54 p.m. ET.
Massie’s ousting underscores Republican voters’ support for Trump. The Kentucky lawmaker, who’s been at odds with Trump over several issues, joins Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., and several Indiana state senators who were defeated by primary challengers backed by Trump in recent weeks.
After his loss, Massie said he still had the support of young voters.
“People that want somebody that will go along to get along, I’ve never heard of that strategy, but that seems to be what the voters want,” Massie said at a watch party in Hebron. “But not the young voters.”
Gallrein, in his victory speech, vowed to carry the party’s agenda in Congress and work closely with the president.
“We have a saying on the family farm that it’s a contact sport,” Gallrein said at an election night event in Covington, Kentucky. “I can tell you that campaigning is one as well folks.”
The race in Kentucky’s 4th Congressional district was one of the nation’s most closely watched Republican primaries of the 2026 election cycle.
The district stretches from the Kentucky suburbs of Cincinnati across the Ohio River in northern Kentucky southward to the outskirts of Louisville, incorporating coal towns and rural villages in the Appalachian foothills.
In 2024, Massie won the primary with 75.9% of the vote and the general election, where he ran unopposed, with 99.6% support. Trump won the district by 35 points in 2024.
Trump and Massie have had a contentious political relationship for years. They have clashed over multiple issues during the president’s second term.
In a Sunday Truth Social post, Trump said Massie “must be thrown out of office.”
The president criticized Massie as “the worst Republican congressman in history” and urged people in Kentucky’s 4th Congressional District to vote for Gallrein.
In 2025, Massie voted against Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act, arguing that it increased the national debt.
An outspoken critic of the Iran war, Massie sponsored a War Powers Resolution in an attempt to require that the administration cease hostilities.
Massie cosponsored the Epstein Files Transparency Act, which was signed into law in November 2025 as a response to long-standing calls for full disclosure of government-held records related to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
In multiple interviews, Massie has said that he votes with Republicans 90% or 91% of the time.
“When I don’t vote that way, it’s when I think my constituents are better served by a different vote,” Massie said.
Trump described Gallrein as a “brave combat veteran” who knows the wisdom and courage required to defend our country, support our military and veterans, and ensure peace through strength.
Gallrein had said the race is a choice between loyalty to Trump’s America First platform and what he said was Massie’s obstructionism.
“Thomas Massie has become one of the biggest roadblocks to President Trump’s ‘America First’ agenda,” Gallrein said after receiving Trump’s backing. “President Trump endorsed me because Kentuckians deserve a congressman who will stand with our president, not against him.”
The district is “Trump country,” Gallrein said. Voters deserve a representative “who will serve as a reliable partner to the president rather than an obstacle,” he added.
Gallrein has accused Massie of having “Trump derangement syndrome” and said he is a “darling of the mainstream media.”
He added that he would “deliver results” and not “create friction.”
The Kentucky 4th Congressional District Republican primary is the most expensive primary in U.S. House history with more than $25 million spent on political ads, according to AdImpact.
An array of pro-Israel groups and donors, including the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, poured millions into the race in their bid to unseat Massie.
Federal Election Commission data show that Gallrein’s campaign has raised around $3.16 million, including more than $63,000 in direct PAC donations from the Republican Jewish Coalition and the United Democracy Project, which is AIPAC’s super PAC.
Track AIPAC indicates that Gallrein’s campaign has received close to $11.8 million from independent expenditures.
Kentucky 4th PAC, Make Liberty Win, Defeating Communism PAC and other anti-Massie groups surpassed $10 million in independent expenditures, according to Decision Desk HQ.
Pro-Trump super PAC MAGA Kentucky poured more than $7 million into ousting Massie, Decision Desk HQ noted.
MAGA Kentucky received $750,000 from the Preserve America PAC, a group linked to billionaire megadonor Miriam Adelson. Paul Singer, another billionaire, directly donated $1 million to MAGA Kentucky and $2.5 million to AIPAC-affiliated super PACs.
On Monday, Decision Desk HQ said on X, “Per FEC data, anti-Massie outside spending leads pro-Massie spending $15.5 mil to $10.3 mil.”
Massie’s campaign, which says it has mainly relied on grassroots fundraising, has received support from the Kentucky First PAC, backed by Pennsylvania billionaire Jeff Yass, a major TikTok investor, who contributed $1 million in support. The Make Liberty Win PAC contributed $518,205.
Gallrein will now face Melissa Strange in November’s general election. The Cook Political Report rates the district as “solidly Republican.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
