Congressman Thomas Massie, one of the main internal critics in the Republican Party of President Donald Trump, lost this Tuesday the Kentucky primary for the House of Representatives, to the contender, endorsed by the president.
Massie, who built a reputation as a Trump antagonist within the Republican Party, lost his primary contest, in a new sign of the president’s dominance over internal elections as happened in Indiana and Louisiana recently.
Republican Trump critic loses Kentucky primary
“They tried to buy my vote. They couldn’t buy it.”
Rep. Thomas Massie delivers a fiery speech after losing his re-election bid, accusing powerful forces in Washington of trying for years to take him down.
Massie, who became a regular target of attacks from President Trump, said… pic.twitter.com/Fyxz0jz0SM
– Fox News (@FoxNews) May 20, 2026
Eid Gallrein, a former member of the Navy special forces, was publicly endorsed by Trump, so that in November he can compete for the congressional seat and received 54% of the vote in the primary, over Massie’s 46%, according to preliminary counts.
Trump weighed in on the vote by defining Massie, who has stood up in the House against the president’s policies, as “the worst congressman in the long and glorious history of the Republican Party.”
Massie voted against Trump’s tax and spending bill and co-authored with Democrat Ro Khanna the bill forcing the Justice Department to make public all documents in the Jeffrey Epstein case.
Kentucky is a traditionally conservative state in the southern United States and has six seats in the House of Representatives, most of which have been held by the Republican Party in recent election cycles.
The state has established itself as a bastion of the Republican vote in federal elections, which makes the party’s primaries, in practice, the most decisive contest to define who will ultimately hold the seat in Washington.
In parallel, in the rest of the Republican primary in Kentucky, Congressman Andy Barr prevailed in the Republican race for the state Senate, displacing Mitch McConnel, who has served in Congress on an interrupted basis since 1985.
Trump already weighed in with his messaging in the Louisiana primary this weekend, where he had Senator Bill Cassidy defeated against Julia Letlow, and he is approaching this candidate election process as a test to gauge his power in the Republican grassroots.
In Georgia, Republican Buddy Carter led the primary with a lead over Mike Collins, while Governor Brian Kemp’s endorsed candidate, Derek Dooley, came in second, according to preliminary results.
In Alabama, Republican Senator Tommy Tuberville won the gubernatorial primary by a wide margin after dropping out of the Senate race, and in Pennsylvania, Democrat Josh Shapiro advanced unopposed on his way to re-election.
Filed under: Thomas Massie loses primary
With information from EFE
