By Siobhan Hughes

COVINGTON, Ky. -- President Trump's handpicked House candidate defeated longtime GOP antagonist Rep. Thomas Massie, underscoring the president's iron grip on the Republican Party and the dire political consequences for lawmakers who defy him headed into the midterm elections.

With 96% of the estimated vote reported, former Navy SEAL Ed Gallrein had 54.8%, boosted by the president's endorsement and deep-pocketed Trump-aligned groups with pro-Israel views, while Massie had 45.2%, according to the Associated Press.

Trump wanted Massie, a seven-term lawmaker, gone after a series of high-profile run-ins. Massie was one of only two House GOP no votes on Trump's "one big beautiful" tax bill last year, and then further annoyed the president by successfully pushing for the release of the Jeffrey Epstein files, an effort that Trump called a Democratic-led hoax.

Massie and Gallrein faced off in an exhausting campaign that set a record for the most expensive House primary contest, featuring regular insults directed at Massie from the president and increasingly ugly ads from rival outside groups aimed at both candidates.

Addressing supporters Tuesday night, Massie smiled and told jokes through visible tears, while also ticking off a list of prominent figures felled by the Epstein documents. He said that his campaign had "started out as an election and it turned into a movement." He also said "we stirred up something" and that "there's a yearning in this country for someone who will vote for principles over party" but didn't lay out any future plans.

Gallrein in his own remarks said his "focus is on advancing the president's and the party's agenda to put America first and Kentucky always."

Separately Tuesday, the candidate Trump endorsed in the Kentucky GOP Senate primary, Rep. Andy Barr, cruised to victory over former state Attorney General Daniel Cameron, a onetime protege of retiring Sen. Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.).

Heading into Tuesday, Trump had a long streak of ending the political careers of people who crossed him, including former Reps. Liz Cheney of Wyoming and once-fierce ally Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia. Sen. Bill Cassidy (R., La.) lost in his primary on Saturday after Trump urged voters to oust him, more than five years after Cassidy voted to convict Trump in his second impeachment trial.

Trump threw a late curveball into the hotly contested Texas GOP Senate race on Tuesday, endorsing state Attorney General Ken Paxton over current Sen. John Cornyn. Trump said the incumbent wasn't loyal enough. His announcement shook GOP senators, some of whom said they would continue to back Cornyn.

Generational divide on Massie

In Kentucky, the Massie-Gallrein race was the nastiest in voters' memories, exposing a generational divide that split some families. Opinion polls showed younger voters favoring Massie, while older voters backed Gallrein.

"I love Thomas Massie -- he's not bought out," said Mason Hutton, 19 years old, who lives with his grandparents, who support Trump and Gallrein. His girlfriend, Gracie York, also 19, said she voted for Massie, too, but keeps quiet when Hutton argues with his grandparents.

Massie, 55 years old, has an enthusiastic base of support in his district and nationally, unlike many of the Republicans that Trump had targeted in the past. Massie was elected in 2012 as a lawmaker in the tea party mold and rose to prominence by playing a key role in the ouster of Republican House Speaker John Boehner.

Still, Trump calculated that his intervention would be enough to defeat the incumbent, telling his advisers to "give me somebody with a warm body to beat Massie." Trump, who won the state by about 30 points in 2024, flew to Kentucky in March to cast Massie as "a disaster."

Trump's top lieutenants tapped wealthy donors to pump out ads criticizing Massie -- and ventured into even more personal attacks. Behind the scenes, people in Trump's orbit discouraged other Republicans from supporting Massie.

The combined efforts helped push Gallrein across the finish line, even though he proved a lackluster campaigner who declined to debate Massie.

"I'm a Trump supporter -- I think what he's done for the country is marvelous: get rid of the aliens, build the wall, and everything he stood for Massie was against," said Richard Carey, a 78-year-old Florence resident who voted for Gallrein despite not knowing much about him. "Anybody's better than what we have."

To push back against the MAGA onslaught, Massie tried to build a coalition of small farmers, Make America Healthy Again moms, young men opposed to the war in Iran, antiabortion groups and fiscal conservatives. On the campaign trail, Massie -- who has established a political brand as an eccentric but principled small-government libertarian -- poked fun at Washington and threw punches back at the people in Trump's world.

"People don't bully me," Massie said, channeling what he said were the lessons from his Vanceburg, Ky., school years to his experiences in Washington.

Controversial ads

Roughly $33 million was spent on ads in the race -- $19 million to boost Gallrein, compared with almost $14 million for Massie -- according to AdImpact.

Most of Gallrein's support came from groups with hawkish, pro-Israel views, including one organized by Trump strategist Chris LaCivita and pollster Tony Fabrizio that started running ads before Massie even had an opponent. In the final two weeks of the race, their MAGA KY group threw $2.5 million in ads against Massie, while a group associated with the American Israel Public Affairs Committee threw $3 million into ads supporting Gallrein.

One AI-generated ad from MAGA KY accused Massie of being "caught in a throuple" with Democratic Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Ilhan Omar. A super PAC targeting Gallrein aired a spot that said he was aligned with a "billionaire club of LGBTQ weirdos" and showed a rainbow Star of David next to one of the pro-Gallrein PAC's donors, drawing charges of antisemitism.

Gallrein's case was that he would support Trump, and the 68-year-old offered a personal biography that centered on his service in the military, where he noted he had won four Bronze stars.

'Third-rate grandstander'

Massie has annoyed Trump for years. In 2020, he forced a majority of House lawmakers back to the U.S. Capitol in person to vote for a Covid-19 relief package. That prompted Trump to label Massie a " third-rate grandstander," but an effort to remove him fizzled.

Massie became a target this cycle in the wake of his vote against Trump's tax-cut and spending law, as well as his opposition to Trump's tariffs and foreign strikes in Venezuela and Iran. Massie's drive to pass legislation forcing the release of files related to Epstein -- a onetime Trump friend -- forced Trump to eventually accept signing it into law and further added to tensions.

Meanwhile, just as he ran afoul of Trump's MAGA base, Massie staunchly opposed aid for Israel, which prompted pro-Israel groups to spend heavily to oust him.

Massie fought back by spending nearly $7 million raised by his own campaign, mostly from small donors who flocked to his cause after hearing him on a show by the broadcaster Tucker Carlson. He was also aided by a super PAC called Kentucky 4th PAC with undisclosed donors. But his team saw its secret sauce as an energized voting base, willing to shrug off the malaise associated with primaries, especially during midterm elections, and show up at the polls.

While most House Republicans kept their distance from Massie, some broke ranks with Trump and offered their support. Over the weekend, Reps. Lauren Boebert (R., Colo.), Warren Davidson (R., Ohio) and Victoria Spartz (R., Ind.) came to Kentucky to campaign with him despite the political risks. Sen. Rand Paul (R., Ky.) was also an outspoken supporter.

"I'll always have his back," Boebert said in an interview last month. Asked if she was concerned about White House pushback, she said "they know where I stand."

After Boebert appeared with Massie, Trump called her "weak minded" and threatened to withdraw his endorsement.

At Massie's gathering Tuesday, the crowd was full of his fans, some whom had hammered in giant Massie yard signs or raised money for him, as well as figures including former Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R., Calif.) and Stewart Rhodes, the founder of the far-right Oath Keepers group. At times, they broke out in chants of "Massie for president!" and "2028!" while Massie offered a toast with raw milk, a cause he has backed for years.

Write to Siobhan Hughes at Siobhan.hughes@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

May 19, 2026 22:30 ET (02:30 GMT)

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