WASHINGTON – US President Donald Trump scored another victory in his campaign to punish disloyal Republicans on May 19 as Representative Thomas Massie of Kentucky lost his primary race, underscoring the risks for lawmakers who defy Mr Trump.
Mr Massie, who angered Mr Trump by leading a push to release Justice Department files tied to the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and emerged as an outspoken critic of the war with Iran, was defeated by Mr Ed Gallrein, a former Navy Seal backed by the President and bolstered by heavy spending by pro-Israel groups.
With 99 per cent of the votes counted, Mr Gallrein had won 54.9 per cent of the total to Mr Massie’s 45.1 per cent, according to CNN.
The contest – the most expensive House of Representatives primary in history, with US$32 million (S$41 million) in advertisement spending – offered the latest evidence of Mr Trump’s hold over the Republicans. It followed the ouster in a primary on May 16 of another Trump critic, Senator Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, and losses for dissenting state lawmakers in Indiana primaries on May 5.
“Massie got Trumped. Donald Trump is the sun and the moon and the stars in the Republican Party in Kentucky,” said Mr T.J. Litafik, a Kentucky-based Republican strategist.
But rather than signal wider appeal for the president, Mr Massie’s defeat underscored Mr Trump’s dominance among party activists who shape primary outcomes, even as his sagging approval ratings and high petrol prices raise questions about the party’s chances with the broader electorate in November’s midterm elections.
Mr Massie’s clashes with Mr Trump began to build in 2025 when he was one of only two House Republicans to vote against the “Big Beautiful Bill”, the President’s signature tax and spending package, and when he successfully led a bipartisan push to force a public release of the so-called Epstein files.
His stance against the Iran war and aid to Israel further drew Mr Trump’s ire and a surge of money from pro-Israel groups, with the Republican Jewish Coalition, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, and a Trump-aligned super PAC funded by pro-Israel donors spending more than US$15 million to oust him.
At a White House event, Mr Trump called Mr Massie a “bad guy” who deserved to lose.
In his concession speech, Mr Massie joked that he had to call Tel Aviv to reach Mr Gallrein, drawing laughs from his supporters, who interrupted his remarks with chants of “No more wars”, “America First” and “2028”, urging him to run for president.
“We weren’t really running against Ed Gallrein. We weren’t running against Donald Trump. We were running for what we believe in,” Mr Massie said. “What happened today was God’s will.”
Other primaries are unfolding on May 19 across Alabama, Georgia, Idaho, Kentucky, Oregon and Pennsylvania, helping to shape the battlefield for November’s elections, when the Democrats aim to take control of the House and potentially the Senate despite Republican gains in a national redistricting fight.
In one of the night’s key races, Representative Andy Barr won the Republican nomination for the Senate seat in Kentucky held by Mr Mitch McConnell for four decades. Bolstered by Mr Trump’s endorsement, Mr Barr defeated former Kentucky attorney-general Daniel Cameron.
In the Georgia Republican primary for governor, Lieutenant Governor Burt Jones and healthcare billionaire Rick Jackson advanced to a June 16 run-off. Mr Trump endorsed Mr Jones in 2025.
The winner of the run-off will face former Atlanta mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, who was declared winner of the Democratic primary by multiple US media outlets.
Combined spending in the Massie-Gallrein race topped US$32 million, surpassing the US$25 million spent in a 2024 race that ousted Democratic Representative Jamaal Bowman in New York, according to AdImpact.
The ads targeting Mr Massie, whose fund raising relied more on grassroots donors, sought to portray him as disloyal to Mr Trump and the party.
One pro-Gallrein ad used AI-generated images to show Mr Massie checking into a hotel with progressive Democratic lawmakers Ilhan Omar and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, with a narrator claiming he had been “caught in a throuple”.
Mr Gallrein had cast himself as a team player who would reliably back Mr Trump, a strategy that proved successful in a state the President won in 2024 with 64.5 per cent of the vote.
In a victory speech, Mr Gallrein said he would bring the same audacity that caused him to become a Navy Seal officer in 1983 to Washington.
“Now my focus is on advancing the President’s and the party’s agenda to put America first and Kentucky always,” Mr Gallrein told his supporters.
Mr Tim Hafer, a constituent in the district spanning Louisville’s suburbs, on the Kentucky side of the Cincinnati metro area, and rural counties to the east, said he once backed Mr Massie but chose to follow Mr Trump’s lead and vote for Mr Gallrein.
“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,” Mr Hafer told Reuters. “I always liked Massie in the past, but the last few ways he’s been voting, he’s not for me.” REUTERS
