Trump-backed challenger defeats Thomas Massie in Kentucky

Trump-endorsed Republican candidate Ed Gallrein has defeated Representative Thomas Massie in a primary election in Kentucky, in a result that the Israel lobby spent tens of millions of dollars to secure.

Gallrein defeated Massie by 54.9% to 45.1% in Tuesday’s election, and will face off against Democratic candidate Melissa Strange this November. Massie had comfortably held Kentucky’s fourth congressional district since 2012, and easily fended off five primary challenges in the intervening years, but this year faced intense pressure from the president and pro-Israel megadonors.

Massie’s insistence that Donald Trump release the full, unredacted Epstein files and refusal to back the ‘One Big Beautiful Bill’ spending package angered the president, who announced last year that he would back “a wonderful American Patriot” to contest the primary.

Trump settled on Gallrein, a military veteran who ran an unsuccessful Senate campaign in 2024. As the primary drew closer, Trump devoted significant political capital to backing Gallrein, campaigning for the former Navy SEAL in Kentucky in March, and sending Secretary of War Pete Hegseth to a Gallrein rally in Hebron, Kentucky on Monday.

Gallrein’s campaign was boosted by the powerful Israel lobby, with the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), the Republican Jewish Coalition (RJC), and other special interest groups and donors pouring $15.5 million into the race, according to Federal Election Commission (FEC) filings.

Massie is a vocal critic of US aid to Israel, and of Israel’s influence over American politics via lobbying groups like AIPAC. The election, he said last week, is “a referendum on whether Israel gets to buy seats in Congress.”

The unprecedented outlay by AIPAC and the RJC helped make the election the most expensive primary in American history, with almost $33 million in total spent on advertising.

In his concession speech, Massie mocked the role of the Israel lobby in Gallrein’s victory. “I would have come out sooner but I had to call my opponent and concede and it took a while to find Ed Gallrein in Tel Aviv,” he said, to cheers from his supporters.

The result further cements Trump’s hold over the Republican Party. In another primary election in Kentucky on Tuesday, Trump-backed candidate Ralph Alvarado beat four challengers to replace outgoing Rep. Andy Barr. Last week, Louisiana Senator Bill Cassidy lost a primary election to the Trump-backed Julia Letlow, while Trump has also waded into next week’s primary in Texas, endorsing former state Attorney-General Ken Paxton to take on Senator John Cornyn.

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