Kentucky Republican Congressman Thomas Massie isn’t afraid to tell his party, or President Donald Trump, “no.” His obstinance has made him a national figure, and drawn Trump’s ire at the same time.
Massie made national headlines as the Republican leading the fight, alongside California Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna, to call for the release of the Jeffrey Epstein files. He consistently opposed Trump’s involvement in foreign conflicts, introducing war powers resolutions to block further U.S. hostilities. He was also one of two House G-O-P opposition votes on Trump’s signature policy package, the One Big Beautiful Bill.
“I'm not going to vote with the party if they're going to bankrupt this country,” Massie said at a recent campaign stop.
With his signature federal debt clock on his lapel, Massie hasn’t shied away from being the GOP opposition voice, even when it makes him unpopular in his own party. He’s forced his fellow congressman to stay in Washington, D.C., for roll call votes and refused to vote for omnibus legislation even when the party’s majority is razor thin. He’s said the constituents in his northern Kentucky district don’t want a rubber stamp.
“There are people who may be registered to one party or the other, but when they go to the ballot box, they vote based on their beliefs and also, do they trust the person?” Massie said “I think I've earned the trust of Republicans, Independents and some Democrats.”
Trump has certainly not been quiet about his displeasure with Massie. On his social media feeds, he’s called him a “sick Wacko,” a “complete and total disaster” and the “Republican party’s worst congressman EVER.”
The president has made it abundantly clear he wants Massie out, including when he came to Kentucky in March to loudly and proudly support his chosen candidate to take him on, Ed Gallrein.
“Give me somebody with a warm body to beat Massie, and I got somebody with a warm body but a big, beautiful brain and a great patriot,” Trump told a crowd of his supporters in Hebron. “He’s unbelievable.”
If you’re looking for where Gallrein splits with the president, you won’t find it. The former Navy SEAL officer has said repeatedly he stands “100% behind the president.”
Gallrein, who previously lost a state Senate race in 2024, points to Trump’s huge margins in Kentucky as proof positive that voters don’t want a congressman who votes differently. In 2024, Trump won Massie’s district by more than 35 points.
“They support our president, all right, 1,000% and now I'm gonna represent them,” Gallrein said in Simpsonville earlier this month.
Kentucky's Trump referendum
Louisiana Sen. Bill Cassidy, who voted to convict Trump in his 2021 impeachment trial, is the latest casualty in the president’s campaign to defeat Republicans he deems disloyal. Just over the river in Indiana, all but one of the six state senators who pushed back against Trump’s mid-term redistricting plan found themselves ousted by Trump-backed candidates.
It’s left many Republican politicos wondering if congressmen who refuse to “go along to get along,” as Massie would put it, can survive Trump’s wrath.
It’s a component of his race that Massie doesn’t shrink from. He says Kentuckians are voting on more than their next congressman — they’re showing their own tolerance from representation that’s willing to split with the president.
“It's a referendum on whether every Republican in the House and the Senate is going to be a rubber stamp for the executive branch or not,” Massie said after a dinner in Pendleton County. “They want no dissension whatsoever.”
Massie says that on the vast majority of issues, he sides with Trump, but he is unwilling to vote “yes” on legislation if there are parts he doesn’t agree with. He said his constituents agree with his votes when they hear his reasoning. The issues that have earned him such a high national profile — Epstein files transparency, opposing foreign wars — are ones Trump himself would have agreed with on the campaign trail, Massie said.
“President Trump's own children promised that the files would be released. JD Vance promised that. The FBI director, Kash Patel promised that, and even Trump himself, even though it may have been half heartedly, agreed to do it,” Massie said. “I'm just keeping a campaign promise that all of them made.”
Gallrein rarely gets into the minutia of policy, but said that he backs the president without reservation. He said if he disagrees, he’ll let the president know in his own way.
“I will speak my mind to the president. He knows that. He respects me,” Gallrein said. “We've met three times now, and all that to say I will maintain that relationship where I can continue to advise him with a plain spoken, no nonsense, apolitical optic about what's best for our nation and our party in this district.”
Massie’s record on blast
Massie has long voted against big omnibus bills because of the plethora of spending line items. It’s put him in the crosshairs before, like when he attempted an unsuccessful parliamentary maneuver in 2020 to require House members to take a recorded vote in order to pass a $2 trillion coronavirus relief package.
His refusal to vote in favor of omnibus legislation, including every budget bill, gives his opponents a lot of ammunition, Massie said.
“I have voted against omnibus bills, which the omnibus bill is, unfortunately, the entire spending bill for the entire year,” Massie told WVXU. “You can run virtually any ad you want against me.”
And Gallrein has repeatedly hit Massie for that failure to vote “yes” on some of the president’s biggest priorities.
“Thomas Massie, has repeatedly voted with the radical Democrats against President Trump, the Republican Party and the conservatives tax cuts and other measures to unleash businesses and our economy here in the US,” Gallrein said at a press conference to announce an endorsement from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
Gallrein also accuses Massie of burning bridges within his party with his stand against omnibus spending.
“He's got a problem for every solution,” Gallrein said. “He's gone up there to Washington, burned every bridge, burned a bridge factory.”
Some Republican voters are conflicted. While many have voted for Massie for years, they wonder if he’s become too much of an obstructionist. Here’s Ron Stamm, who attended the Kenton County Republican dinner.
“They pack all these extraneous things onto these bills. Well, Thomas Massie is the kind of guy, he says, ‘No, I'm not going to vote for all of this other stuff,’” Stamm said.
Stamm does wonder if maybe that strategy doesn’t work in Washington. Others say they don’t want to vote for a puppet and respect Massie for standing behind the same values he’s always had.
But Trump loyalists, like Janice Sewell from Hebron who attended Trump’s northern Kentucky rally, say it’s time for Massie to get out of the way.
“He should be a registered Democrat. Seriously, that's how I feel, because he votes with the Democrats on everything,” Sewell said.
Gallrein refuses to debate Massie in Kentucky
Gallrein has faced some criticism among northern Kentucky Republicans for failing to agree to a debate with the congressman. After the statewide K-E-T debate that Gallrein didn’t attend, Massie said his absence is telling.
“If he can't debate me in the Boone County Library, if he can't debate me here in Kentucky on educational TV, I don't think he's going to be able to debate or advocate for constituents,” Massie said after the one-sided debate.
Local GOP members have posted videos online, where participants in closed forums question why Gallrein is unwilling to debate Massie. Northern Kentucky Young Republicans also blasted Gallrein on their social media for failing to appear at any of their forums or debates, and said that Massie is the “only option” for those who want transparent representation.
“It is deeply troubling that he did not want an audience with the young Republicans. If you refuse to engage with prospective voters, especially young adults looking to get involved in campaigns, you are not a serious candidate,” the group posted online.
Gallrein, who has repeatedly addressed his lack of debates with the press, said he believes he is debating Massie by speaking directly with voters.
“He's had 15 years. What's he got to say now he hasn't said already? He's got a body of work that speaks for itself. He should be debating that,” Gallrein said.
Money pours into Kentucky primary
With candidate and PAC spending through the roof, it’s likely to be one of the country’s most expensive House primaries. Politico reported that Massie’s primary is the most expensive in history.
The ads in this race have, in many ways, gotten out of control with artificial-intelligence derived imagery showing unflattering representations of both candidates. One satirical ad made with AI appears to show Massie in a romantic throuple with Democratic congresswomen Ilhan Omar and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
Overall ad spending has topped $32 million, according to tracking firm AdImpact. Prominent pro-Israel GOP donors have funneled millions, directly and indirectly, to try and take out Massie.
“He’s the most anti-Israel Republican in the House,” United Democracy Project spokesperson Patrick Dorton told Politico. “This is a competitive, close primary situation. It’s always hard to defeat incumbents. … But we think there’s an opportunity here.”
Massie said it’s one of the big differences between him and Gallrein. The congressman has long criticized Israel and knocked foreign aid spending in all shapes and forms, saying that money needs to go toward paying down the federal debt first.
“I don't think we should send a penny of it overseas,” Massie said. “I also don't think we should become belligerent, co-combatants in these wars by providing weapons that end up killing other people who aren't really our enemies. The people in Gaza are not our enemies, and Israel has decimated that area.”
Massie has significant funding behind him, both raised directly and by the PACS supporting him. He said even after competing in a primary with so much outside money flowing in, he doesn’t want most campaign finance reform.
“Unfortunately, I have to pay money to have a voice, and it's amplified by my opponent,” Massie said. “If somebody wanted to reform spending and say, you can only spend the money that's raised inside of your state from residents of your state, I would take that deal in a heartbeat.”
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