Ed Gallrein, the primary challenger to Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY), backed by President Donald Trump, raised an eye-popping $1.2 million in the fourth quarter of 2025, his campaign announced exclusively to Breitbart News on Friday.
“This fundraising number reflects the overwhelming support Ed’s campaign has received right out of the gate,” Gallrein campaign spokesman Lance Trover told Breitbart News. “President Trump endorsed Ed because he knows Ed is fighting to put America First and will partner with him to unleash our economy, lower taxes, and stop the woke agenda.”
Gallrein, a family farmer and retired U.S. Navy SEAL, entered the race for the GOP nomination for Congress in Kentucky’s fourth congressional district in October. Trover told Breitbart News that 99 percent of those donations are just for the primary—candidates can raise money for both the primary and the general election when they launch, but cannot spend general election money on the primary—signifying the intensity of support among Republicans in wanting to see Massie ousted from Congress.
Massie used to be a leading conservative voice in the House, but in recent months and years has grown to join Democrats in criticizing Trump and voting against Trump’s agenda. For instance, Massie was the lone Republican in the House to vote against the One Big Beautiful Bill in the lead-up to its eventual passage. He also joined Democrats in pushing a discharge petition that Trump and House Speaker Mike Johnson originally opposed but eventually supported that forced a vote in the House on the bill to push for the release of the so-called Epstein Files surrounding the case of now-deceased billionaire pedophile Jeffrey Epstein. Those files are currently in process of being released publicly, as the Justice Department applies the proper redactions to protect victims, with hundreds of thousands of documents now released. Massie’s push to force this disclosure was originally opposed by top Republicans like Trump, but when it became clear the effort had the requisite level of support to pass both the House and Senate they ended up throwing their support behind it—and it passed both chambers of Congress nearly unanimously, and Trump subsequently signed the measure into law.
Trump’s frustration with Massie could not be clearer, though, as the president sought to recruit, endorse, and help finance the campaign of a qualified challenger and now he has found that person in Gallrein. In an interview on Breitbart News Saturday on SiriusXM 125 the Patriot Channel in mid-December, Gallrein told Breitbart News that Massie “sees a problem with every solution.”
“The president laid his agenda out in black and white during the election. The president won all of the swing states, he won this district by nearly 70 to 30,” Gallrein said of Trump’s agenda and Kentucky’s fourth district.
But Massie, he argued, regularly sides with Democrats on just about everything these days. “Regrettably, our voice for Congress in Washington is the voice of the Democratic Party,” Gallrein said.
Trump urged Gallrein to run, offering him his complete and total endorsement before he even formally entered the race. In a Truth Social post back in mid-October, Trump called on Gallrein to enter the race.
“I hope Ed gets into the Race against Massie,” Trump said in the post. “Unlike ‘lightweight’ Massie, a totally ineffective LOSER who has failed us so badly, CAPTAIN ED GALLREIN IS A WINNER WHO WILL NOT LET YOU DOWN. Should he decide to challenge Massie, Captain Ed Gallrein has my Complete and Total Endorsement. RUN, ED, RUN.”
Gallrein’s history includes a lengthy tenure as a Navy SEAL officer, serving for three decades in uniform including multiple times on SEAL Team Six, rising to the rank of Captain.
After less than a full quarter in the race, now, Gallrein has successfully raised enough cash to give Massie a real competitor for this seat. If he keeps it up in the first quarter of 2026 and into the second quarter, there could be a serious upset brewing here ahead of the May 19 primary.
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