Dem
47
GOP
53
Freshly off being defeated in his primary last week, Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) made clear yesterday that he's not going away anytime soon. He filed paperwork to run for reelection, in 2028, to the seat that he will vacate on Jan. 3 of next year.
Massie says that he has not officially made a decision about his political future, and said that while he thinks he will probably run to win his seat back, he might just mount a presidential campaign. As a practical matter, for the moment, Massie's status as an "official" candidate means he can legally raise and spend campaign money. It is acceptable, under federal law, to transfer money donated for one type of campaign (say, for the House) to another type of campaign (say, for president).
If Massie tries to get his House seat back, well, that's not completely crazy. It might be a little bit crazy, though. Donald Trump will still be around in 2028, probably, and will still hate Massie with the heat of a million white-hot suns. Since Trump would be on his way out anyhow, he could decide (again) that defeating Massie (again) is Priority #1. Trump might be less popular in 2028 than he is now, but he won't be THAT much less popular, since he doesn't have much further to sink. And also, "less popular" isn't enough; it has to be "less popular with the kind of folks who populate KY-04."
If Massie tries to run for president, then that is completely crazy (unless his goal is just to get some attention). He's basically a libertarian. That is not a mainstream position, even within the Republican Party. And that's before we consider that MAGA hates Massie. Meanwhile, Democrats certainly appreciate Massie's war on Trump, and his unflinching support for releasing the Epstein files. But they are not going to vote for someone like him (who is very NON-Democratic on most issues) over an actual Democrat. After all, there are plenty of actual Democrats who hate Trump and who have pushed hard for the Epstein files to be released.
In any case, we're not actually all that interested in Massie's political prospects. What we ARE interested in is that he will be the face of "Republicans who hate Trump" for the foreseeable future. He's fairly high-profile, he's unfiltered, and until he formally decides otherwise, he's a candidate for federal political office. Massie is going to get interviewed all the time. They might as well give him his own dressing room at Meet the Press right now. Between him and Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC), who has also grown to be very outspoken, Trump may eventually come to understand what Lyndon B. Johnson was talking about when he said it's sometimes better to have someone inside the tent pi**ing out, rather than outside the tent pi**ing in. (Z)