Dem
47
GOP
53
Very few Republicans in Congress dare criticize Donald Trump in any form and those who do are quickly silenced by him. Some are forced to leave Congress as a result of incurring his wrath (see Tillis, Thom and Greene, Marjorie Taylor). However, there is one House member who hasn't crumbled under Trump's thumb, despite Trump's doing his best to crush him: Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY).
So naturally, after Plan A (trying to intimidate Massie) failed, Trump has switched to his usual Plan B: endorsing a primary opponent and making sure the opponent is well funded. In this case, the opponent is former Navy SEAL Ed Gallrein, who served in the Navy for 30 years before retiring to his destination farm, complete with a petting zoo and U-Pick strawberries. In 2024, Gallrein ran for the state Senate and lost. He is otherwise a complete unknown in KY-04, an R+18 district that includes the wealthy southern Cincinnati suburbs, the eastern suburbs of Louisville to the sparsely settled rural Greenup County in the East. Here is the district:
Although it looks highly gerrymandered, it is not really. The northern boundary is the Ohio River, which is the state line. The southern boundary follows county lines so as to avoid breaking up counties.
Massie is not giving up and not shying away from taking on the full force of Trump and MAGA. Trump is attacking Massie every way he can, both above the belt and below it, including attacks on Massie's new wife, whom Massie recently married after his high school sweetheart and wife of 31 years died of an autoimmune disease in 2024. Rep. Andy Barr (R-KY) has endorsed Gallrein rather than his House colleague, Massie, because Barr needs to suck up to Trump to get his endorsement for his Senate campaign. The state's junior senator, Rand Paul (R-KY), a fellow libertarian, is with Massie, however.
Massie is definitely a self-made man with no shortage of self-confidence. He was born in West Virginia and raised in Kentucky's Appalachian culture. He made it to MIT, where he got a bachelor's in electrical engineering and a master's in mechanical engineering. While a student, he helped design and race solar-powered cars. After graduating, he formed a company based on his master's thesis work, got $32 million in venture capital, hired 70 people, obtained 24 patents, and sold the successful company in 2003. Then he was elected Judge Executive (i.e., county executive) in Lewis County, near the eastern part of the district. He was elected to the House in 2012. Due to his representing the district for almost 14 years, he is well known and liked there especially in the affluent Cincinnati suburbs he represents. Those voters are more conservative than MAGA and may not be swayed so easily by Trump's endorsement. Gallrein may possibly do better in the MAGA-loving rural eastern part of the district, but that is Massie's home base, so maybe not. Gallrein's farm is in Shelbyville, in the far western part of the district, about 25 miles east of Louisville. The district is about 160 miles from east to west.
Gallrein's campaign will have to be based on his long Navy service and Trump's endorsement. Running a tourist farm is not an automatic qualification for the House. He won't be able to get much mileage from attacking Massie's voting record, since the congressman has a very conservative record. The main area where Massie has crossed Trump is demanding full transparency about who was involved with Jeffrey Epstein. Massie is making that a major issue and knows it is popular with the MAGA base. What is Gallrein going to do? Say it is time to forget Epstein and move on?
Massie has some well-heeled supporters. Billionaire Jack Dorsey, who founded eX-Twitter, tweeted that he would support Massie for president in 2028. Last summer, the current owner of eX-Twitter, Elon Musk, said he would support Massie against a Trump-backed challenger. Musk and Trump have reconciled somewhat since then, so Musk might have changed his mind. On the other hand, Musk is a libertarian, Massie is a libertarian, and Trump is not, so who knows what Musk will do in the race, if anything. Also, Musk learned from dabbling in a Wisconsin Supreme Court race last year that money isn't everything.
Coward of the House Mike Johnson, who normally strongly backs all Republican incumbents against challengers, hasn't taken a stand in the Massie-Gallrein duel. He said: "I generally run the incumbent protection program here. But it's gotta be a cooperation. I gotta have a conversation with Thomas to see if he wants to be on the team. Stay tuned on that." Indeed, stay tuned. It is going to be an interesting race, to say the least, and a real test of Trump's power against a popular conservative who is probably more in tune with MAGA than Trump himself. The primary is May 19. (V)