Kentucky just handed Donald Trump his biggest primary win yet, and Thomas Massie paid the price for it

Donald Trump scored a major victory in Kentucky as his endorsed candidate, Ed Gallrein, defeated incumbent Republican Congressman Thomas Massie in the state’s primary election. Gallrein, a former Navy SEAL, will now represent the Republican Party in Kentucky’s Fourth Congressional District in November’s midterm election.

The race had been one of the most-watched political contests in recent memory. It was the most expensive primary in the history of the House of Representatives, and it was seen as a direct test of how much power Trump still holds over the Republican Party. Trump had been loud and clear about where he stood, repeatedly urging voters to reject Massie and back Gallrein instead.

Trump’s grip on the Republican Party has now been put on full display. Massie, who has served in Congress since 2012, fell after refusing to give the president the full loyalty he demanded. Massie himself acknowledged this, saying that Trump and his allies “want 100% compliance,” adding that the president’s team was only upset about the roughly 10% of votes where Massie broke ranks, specifically on issues like the national debt, warrantless spying, and military spending.

Voting with Trump 90% of the time just was not good enough

Massie’s split with Trump came to a head last year when he voted against Trump’s “big, beautiful” tax and spending bill, citing concerns about the national debt. He also voted to limit Trump’s actions against suspected drug boats in the Caribbean and against the administration’s ongoing conflict with Iran.

On top of that, Massie joined Democrats and a small group of Republicans to push the Department of Justice to release its files on Jeffrey Epstein. Interestingly, when Trump first ramped up his attacks on Massie, Massie saw the criticism as a fundraising boost rather than a threat.

Trump responded by calling Massie “an obstructionist and a fool” in a series of social media posts just a day before the primary. He had previously labeled Massie “a major sleazebag” and “the worst Republican congressman in history.” The White House went further, sending Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth to campaign against Massie on the ground in Kentucky.

Massie read Hegseth’s visit as a sign that the campaign against him was not going as well as Trump’s team had hoped. “You don’t send the Secretary of War to Kentucky during a war if you think your candidate is up 10 points,” he told CBS News. Despite that, the result still went against him. The contest had already made headlines for all the wrong reasons, with deepfake ads and record-breaking spending defining the race long before election day.

In his concession speech, Massie told his supporters that he was proud of how the campaign was run. “We’ve been honorable the whole time,” he said, according to the BBC. The Kentucky results were not the only story of the night.

In a separate race, Congressman Andy Barr won the Republican nomination to fill the Senate seat being vacated by Mitch McConnell, who is retiring after more than 40 years in the Senate. Trump had endorsed Barr, and Barr’s main challenger had stepped aside after Trump offered him an ambassadorship.

Trump has now used his influence to shape a number of Republican races across the country, including in Texas, where he chose to back Attorney General Ken Paxton over longtime Senator John Cornyn. “John Cornyn is a good man, and I worked well with him, but he was not supportive of me when times were tough,” Trump said. The Kentucky result makes clear that standing against Trump, even occasionally, still comes with serious political consequences.