Gallrein, a former Navy SEAL, was bolstered by record spending in the Kentucky U.S. House GOP contest.
HEBRON, Ky.—Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) lost his Republican primary on May 19 to former Navy SEAL Ed Gallrein.
President Donald Trump had endorsed Gallrein as part of his effort to get Massie removed from Congress.
Gallrein had tallied 54 percent of the votes compared to 45 percent for Massie when The Associated Press called the race at 7.54 p.m. ET.
The race in Kentucky’s 4th Congressional district was one of the nation’s most closely watched Republican primaries of the 2026 election cycle.
The district stretches from the Kentucky suburbs of Cincinnati across the Ohio River in northern Kentucky southward to the outskirts of Louisville, incorporating coal towns and rural villages in the Appalachian foothills.
In 2024, Massie won the primary with 75.9 percent of the vote and the general election, where he ran unopposed, with 99.6 percent support. Trump won the district by 35 points in 2024.
Trump and Massie have had a contentious political relationship for years. They have clashed over multiple issues during the president’s second term.
In 2025, Massie voted against Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act, arguing that it increased the national debt.
An outspoken critic of the Iran war, Massie sponsored a War Powers Resolution in an attempt to require that the administration cease hostilities.
Massie cosponsored the Epstein Files Transparency Act, which was signed into law in November 2025 as a response to long-standing calls for full disclosure of government-held records related to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
In a May 17 Truth Social post, Trump said Massie “must be thrown out of office.”
The president criticized Massie as “the worst Republican congressman in history” and urged people in Kentucky’s Fourth Congressional District to vote for Gallrein.
Trump described Gallrein as a “brave combat veteran” who knows the wisdom and courage required to defend our country, support our military and veterans, and ensure peace through strength.
In multiple interviews, Massie has said that he votes with Republicans 90 percent or 91 percent of the time.
“When I don’t vote that way, it’s when I think my constituents are better served by a different vote,” Massie said.
Gallrein had said the race is a choice between loyalty to Trump’s America First platform and Massie’s obstructionism
“Thomas Massie has become one of the biggest roadblocks to President Trump’s ‘America First’ agenda,” Gallrein said after receiving Trump’s backing. “President Trump endorsed me because Kentuckians deserve a congressman who will stand with our president, not against him.”
