By Nathan Layne
May 19 (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump scored another victory in his campaign to punish disloyal Republicans on Tuesday as Representative Thomas Massie of Kentucky lost his primary race, underscoring the risks for lawmakers who defy Trump.
Massie, who angered Trump by leading a push to release Justice Department files tied to the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, was defeated by Ed Gallrein, a former Navy SEAL backed by the president and bolstered by heavy outside spending by pro-Israel groups, according to U.S. media projections.
The contest – the most expensive House of Representatives primary in history, with $32 million in ad spending – offered the latest evidence of Trump’s hold over Republicans. It followed the ouster in a primary on Saturday of another Trump critic, Senator Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, and losses for dissenting state lawmakers in Indiana primaries on May 5.
“Massie got Trumped. Donald Trump is the sun and the moon and the stars in the Republican Party in Kentucky,” said T.J. Litafik, a Kentucky-based Republican strategist.
But rather than signal wider appeal for the president, Massie’s defeat underscored Trump’s dominance among party activists who shape primary outcomes, even as his sagging approval ratings and high gas prices raise questions about the party’s chances with the broader electorate in November’s midterm elections.
Massie’s clashes with Trump began to build in 2025 when he was one of only two House Republicans to vote against the “Big Beautiful Bill,” the president’s signature tax and spending package, and when he successfully led a push to release Justice Department files tied to the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
His stance against the Iran war and aid to Israel further drew Trump’s ire and a surge of money from pro‑Israel groups, with the Republican Jewish Coalition, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, and a Trump‑aligned super PAC funded by pro-Israel donors spending more than $15 million to oust him.
“He’s a bad guy, he deserves to lose,” Trump said at a White House event on Tuesday night.
Other primaries are unfolding on Tuesday across Alabama, Georgia, Idaho, Kentucky, Oregon and Pennsylvania, helping to shape the battlefield for November’s elections, when Democrats aim to take control of the House and potentially the Senate despite Republican gains in a national redistricting fight.
In one of the night’s races, Representative Andy Barr won the Republican nomination for the Senate seat in Kentucky held by Mitch McConnell for four decades, according to media projections. Bolstered by Trump’s endorsement, Barr defeated former Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron.
OUTSIDE GROUPS MAKE IMPACT
Combined spending in the Massie-Gallrein race topped $32 million, surpassing the $25 million spent in a 2024 race that ousted Democratic Representative Jamaal Bowman in New York, according to AdImpact.
The ads targeting Massie, whose fundraising relied heavily on grassroots donors, sought to portray him as disloyal to Trump and the party. One pro‑Gallrein ad used AI‑generated images to show Massie checking into a hotel with progressive Democratic lawmakers Ilhan Omar and Alexandria Ocasio‑Cortez, with a narrator claiming he had been “caught in a throuple.”
Gallrein had cast himself as a team player who would reliably back Trump, a strategy that proved successful in a state the president won in 2024 with 64.5% of the vote.
Tim Hafer, a constituent in the district spanning Louisville’s suburbs, on the Kentucky side of the Cincinnati metro area, and rural counties to the east, said he once backed Massie but chose to follow Trump’s lead and vote for Gallrein.
“I figure he knows much more about what’s going on in the political realm than I do. So, I went strictly on Trump’s suggestion,” Hafer told Reuters. “I always liked Massie in the past, but the last few ways he’s been voting, he’s not for me.”
(Reporting by Nathan Layne in Wilton, Connecticut, Evan Garcia in Kentuckyand Bo Erickson in Washington; Editing by Ross Colvin, Deepa Babington, Cynthia Osterman and Stephen Coates)
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