Representative Thomas Massie of Kentucky lost his Republican primary on Tuesday, falling to Ed Gallrein in a contest that highlighted the sway of former President Donald Trump over intraparty nominations and the growing role of outside spending in House races.
With 99% of ballots tallied, Gallrein led with 54.9% of the vote to Massie’s 45.1%, according to CNN. The race between the two candidates became the most expensive House primary in U.S. history, with advertising expenditures reaching roughly $32 million.
Gallrein, a former Navy SEAL endorsed by Trump, ran as a reliable supporter of the president and the party’s agenda. That positioning, combined with large expenditures by pro-Israel outside groups and a Trump-aligned super PAC funded by pro-Israel donors, propelled his campaign. Those outside groups - including the Republican Jewish Coalition and the American Israel Public Affairs Committee - contributed to more than $15 million in spending aimed at unseating Massie.
Massie, who had clashed repeatedly with Trump, built friction with the former president beginning in 2025 when he was one of only two House Republicans to oppose the administration’s signature tax and spending package, the so-called "Big Beautiful Bill." He also led a bipartisan effort that forced the public release of Justice Department files tied to the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, and he has been an outspoken critic of the war with Iran and of certain aid measures for Israel. Those positions figured prominently in the campaign messaging against him.
At a White House event during the campaign, Trump called Massie a "bad guy" who deserved to lose. In his concession remarks, Massie attempted levity as he joked that he had to call Tel Aviv to reach Gallrein, prompting laughter from supporters who interrupted him with chants of "No more wars!" "America First" and "2028!" urging him to consider a presidential run. Massie said: "We weren’t really running against Ed Gallrein. We weren’t running against Donald Trump. We were running for what we believe in," adding, "What happened today was God’s will."
Gallrein emphasized loyalty to the president in his victory speech, saying he would bring the same boldness that led him to become a Navy SEAL in 1983 to the job in Washington. "Now my focus is on advancing the president’s and the party’s agenda to put America first and Kentucky always," he told supporters.
Observers of the contest said the outcome was emblematic of Trump’s influence over the party’s activist base, who often determine primary results. "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. Yet the result also reiterated an existing political puzzle: while Trump can shape nominations, his popularity with primary voters does not automatically translate to broad appeal with the general electorate, particularly as his approval ratings have softened and gasoline prices remain high.
The campaign against Massie featured targeted advertisements intended to portray him as disloyal to Trump and to conservative priorities. One ad used AI-generated imagery to depict Massie checking into a hotel alongside progressive Democratic lawmakers Ilhan Omar and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, with a narrator asserting he had been "caught in a throuple." Massie’s fundraising relied more heavily on grassroots donors than on the deep-pocketed organizations that backed Gallrein.
Beyond the Massie-Gallrein matchup, several other primaries took place on Tuesday across multiple states - Alabama, Georgia, Idaho, Kentucky, Oregon and Pennsylvania - shaping the field ahead of the November midterm elections. Those contests will help determine which Senate and House seats are competitive in the fall, at a time when Democrats aim to recapture control of the House and contest for Senate gains amid a complex redistricting landscape.
In Kentucky, Representative Andy Barr, buoyed by Trump’s endorsement, won the Republican nomination for the Senate seat long held by Senator Mitch McConnell for four decades, defeating former Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron. In Georgia’s Republican gubernatorial primary, Lieutenant Governor Burt Jones and healthcare billionaire Rick Jackson advanced to a June 16 runoff; Trump had endorsed Jones last year. The eventual Republican nominee will face former Atlanta mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, who multiple U.S. media outlets declared the Democratic primary winner. In the Georgia Republican primary for the U.S. Senate, Representative Mike Collins and former college football coach Derek Dooley advanced to a runoff, where the winner will face Democratic Senator Jon Ossoff in the general election.
Local voters voiced varied reasons for supporting Gallrein. Tim Hafer, a constituent in a district that covers Louisville’s suburbs on the Kentucky side of the Cincinnati metropolitan area and stretches into rural counties to the east, said he had previously supported Massie but ultimately voted for Gallrein because he trusted Trump’s judgment. "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."
Analysts noted the scale of outside spending in the Massie-Gallrein contest exceeded the roughly $25 million spent in a 2024 primary that resulted in the removal of Democratic Representative Jamaal Bowman in New York, based on data from AdImpact. The figure made the race the costliest House primary to date and drew attention to the growing role of third-party groups and targeted digital advertisements - including synthetic media - in shaping outcomes.
Bottom line: The defeat of a long-standing Republican maverick by a Trump-endorsed challenger, amplified by heavy outside spending, illustrates the extent of the former president’s leverage in shaping primary contests and the intensifying role of ad spending and novel ad tactics in U.S. House races. The result contributes to a pattern of primary defeats for Republican lawmakers who have publicly broken with Trump.