Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky became the latest Republican incumbent to fall in the midterm primaries, losing to President Donald Trump-backed Ed Gallrein.
Gallrein led Massie by approximately a 9 percentage point margin on Tuesday night, NBC News reported.
Massie — who voted against some of Trump’s highest-profile legislation, including the Big Beautiful Bill last summer — had been leading in the race, based on polling, as recently as April, but multiple surveys released this month showed Gallrein moving ahead in the contest.
The race was the most expensive House primary race in U.S. history, with PAC spending topping $25 million.
At a rally in Kentucky in March, Trump noted that Massie also voted against a continuing resolution to keep the government open last fall.
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The Kentucky lawmaker also voted for a War Powers Resolution in March, primarily supported by Democrats, to force Trump to end combat operations in Iran.
In a Truth Social post Sunday, Trump wrote that Massie “is the Worst ‘Republican’ Congressman in History, voting against Tax Cuts, the Wall, Law Enforcement, and in favor of the Transgender Mutilization of our Children, Men playing in Women’s Sports, and so many more horrible things.”
“The Great People of Kentucky are wise to Massie — He only votes against the Republican Party, making life very easy for the Radical Left,” the president added.
“The incredible people of Kentucky’s 4th Congressional District gave us a mandate to MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN. And the person that will help us do that is Navy SEAL, Army Ranger, and Fifth Generation Kentucky Farmer, Captain Ed Gallrein, a true America First Patriot,” Trump said.
The president told reporters Tuesday, “Thomas Massie is a terrible congressman, he’s been a terrible congressman from day one. Dealing with him is just horrible. I don’t think he’s a Republican, I think he’s actually a Dumbocrat, he’s not a libertarian, you know, sometimes they say he’s a, he’s really a Dumbocrat. He votes against us all the time.”
🚨 JUST IN: President Trump goes BALLISTIC on Rep. Thomas Massie while Kentucky voters storm the polls in the KY-04 primary
— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) May 19, 2026
"Thomas Massie is a terrible congressman, he's been a terrible congressman from day one. Dealing with him is just a horrible, I don't think he's a… pic.twitter.com/KkRPJo4cEV
Regarding his high-profile votes against Trump, Massie told ABC affiliate WHAS-TV last week, “It’s a question of whether you can have even the slight bit of a dissenting vote on any day at all. Because I vote with the party 90 percent of the time.”
Massie was first elected to Congress in 2012.
He won the Republican primary for Kentucky’s 4th congressional district in 2024 with 76 percent of the vote and the general election, in which Democrats did not field a candidate, with over 99 percent of the tally.
Trump has racked up some impressive primary wins, including in Indiana, where five candidates he endorsed defeated GOP incumbent state senators who refused to redraw the state’s congressional map.
In addition, GOP Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, who voted to convict Trump during his 2021 impeachment trial, finished third in his primary, losing to Trump-backed GOP Rep. Julia Letlow. She will now advance to a runoff against state Treasurer John Fleming.
Cassidy is the first elected Republican incumbent senator to lose in a primary since 2012.
This article originally appeared on The Western Journal and is reposted with permission.
