<\/p>\n
Republican congressional candidate Ed Gallrein greets supporters during an election night event Tuesday, May 19, 2026, in Covington, Ky.<\/p>\n
Joshua A. Bickel\/AP Photo\/Joshua A. Bickel<\/p>\n
Workers attach a sign for Republican congressional candidate Ed Gallrein before he speaks at an election night event Tuesday, May 19, 2026, in Covington, Ky.<\/p>\n
Joshua A. Bickel\/AP Photo\/Joshua A. Bickel<\/p>\n
Donavan Spencer speaks with members of the media during an election night watch party for Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., at the Marriott Cincinnati Airport, Tuesday, May 19, 2026, in Hebron, Ky.<\/p>\n
Carolyn Kaster\/AP Photo\/Carolyn Kaster<\/p>\n
Rep. Andy Barr, R-KY, a Trump-endorsed candidate for the U.S. Senate, speaks to guests of the Kenton County Republican Party Lincoln Day Dinner, Thursday, April 30, 2026, in Covington, Ky.<\/p>\n
Jon Cherry\/AP<\/p>\n
Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., speaks after losing the Republican party’s nomination during an election night watch party at the Marriott Cincinnati Airport, Tuesday, May 19, 2026, in Hebron, Ky.<\/p>\n
Carolyn Kaster\/AP Photo\/Carolyn Kaster<\/p>\n
HEBRON, Ky. (AP) \u2014 Kentucky U.S. Rep. Thomas Massie lost his Republican House primary Tuesday in another test of President Donald Trump\u2019s power over his party after he handpicked challenger and ultimate winner Ed Gallrein to oust the incumbent.<\/p>\n
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The result showed the president\u2019s persisting influence over GOP voters and adding to a growing number of Trump-backed primary challengers to defeat Republican lawmakers who angered him in his second term, including Sen. Bill Cassidy in Louisiana and several Indiana state senators who defied him on redistricting.<\/p>\n
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Massie, who has served in Congress since 2012, is one of the last and most outspoken holdouts. He pushed for the release of the Jeffrey Epstein files, criticized the war in Iran and voted against the president’s signature tax legislation last year. Still, he tried to convince voters that they could be for both him and Trump.<\/p>\n
Gallrein, a former Navy SEAL, ran on his military service and loyalty to the president and accused Massie of forsaking Trump and the party. He is expected to win the general election against Democrat Melissa Strange in the deeply red district.<\/p>\n
The president visited Kentucky to boost Gallrein in March.<\/p>\n
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The primary turned white hot in the final stretch of the campaign as Massie recruited a phalanx of other Republicans, including Rep. Lauren Boebert, in an attempt to show voters that they could support both him and Trump. Trump ratcheted up his social media attacks on Massie, calling him \u201can obstructionist and a fool,\u201d and Gallrein shared a stage with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Monday.<\/p>\n
The race was the most expensive U.S. House primary in history.<\/p>\n
Also Tuesday, Republicans statewide chose U.S. Rep. Andy Barr as their nominee to replace Mitch McConnell, the longtime U.S. Senate leader. In a contest representing a generational changing of the guard for the party, Barr, who was endorsed by Trump, bested Daniel Cameron, a former state attorney general who leaned into his Christianity on the campaign trail.<\/p>\n
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Massie’s challenge<\/p>\n
Massie’s challenge was to win over voters who generally think favorably of Trump, the same man telling them to vote for Gallrein. It was not the first Republican primary Trump has tried to sway, but Massie’s overt rebelliousness has been a particular challenge to the president.<\/p>\n
Gallrein embraced the role Trump gave him and focused his pitch to voters on his personal history and unwavering loyalty to the president.<\/p>\n
Some voters were fed up with Massie bucking the party.<\/p>\n
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George Scherzer, who lives in the small town of Crestwood, supported Massie in past elections but did not like his lack of support for some of the president\u2019s agenda, including last year\u2019s tax and spending bill, known as the One Big Beautiful Bill.<\/p>\n
\u201cSome of his votes just did not make sense to me,\u201d Scherzer said.<\/p>\n
Massie noted that he voted with his party the vast majority of the time. As for the remainder, he said those were on proposals that violated his America First principles such as adding to the national debt and getting into military entanglements like the war with Iran.<\/p>\n
Massie has voted against U.S. aid to Israel and faced accusations of antisemitism. He has denied the charges, arguing that he is generally against all foreign aid. But the race drew in millions of dollars against him from pro-Israel interest groups, including from the Republican Jewish Coalition Victory Fund.<\/p>\n
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That became a stump topic for Massie, who said the attempt to oust him was to send a warning to other lawmakers who oppose the president or aid to Israel.<\/p>\n
In a last-minute pitch to Kentucky Republicans, Boebert posted photos of her with Massie and with Trump on the social platform X, saying, \u201cI support both of these men.\u201d Replying to that, Massie said: \u201cshe likes both Trump and me! Yes it\u2019s possible!!\u201d<\/p>\n
Trump lashed out at Boebert on his Truth Social platform, asking for a Republican to challenge her \u2014 even though the filing deadline in her home state of Colorado has already passed. \u201cAnybody that dumb deserves a good Primary fight!\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n
Trump also influenced Senate primary<\/p>\n
The president swayed the race not just through his endorsement but by offering a third challenger, Nate Morris, an ambassadorship just over two weeks before Election Day. Morris, who fashioned himself as the MAGA candidate, withdrew from the race and encouraged his backers to support Barr.<\/p>\n
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Barr was first elected in 2012 in the 6th Congressional District. As with Gallrein, he is expected to win the general election in the Republican-dominated state.<\/p>\n
During the campaign both Barr and Cameron tiptoed around their relationship with McConnell, whom they previously called a mentor.<\/p>\n
McConnell criticized Trump over the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol and more recently voted against some of his Cabinet picks. He is stepping down after becoming the longest serving Senate leader in American history, coinciding with a transformation of the party under Trump.<\/p>\n
Many Republicans, while admiring McConnell’s achievements, see him as out of step with the Make America Great Again and America First movements spawned by Trump. Both Barr and Cameron took note, and while ingratiating themselves to the president, they put some distance between themselves and the senator.<\/p>\n
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Bedayn reported from Austin, Texas.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Republican congressional candidate Ed Gallrein greets supporters during an election night event Tuesday, May 19, 2026, in Covington,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":300553,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[109190,54320,109189,145,103759,109188,31231,32555,2917,108932,109185,109186,10748,109187,23681,59373,3310,86817,59371,59372,61260,61261,61262,82,84,83,71657],"class_list":["post-300552","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-antonio","tag-andy-barr","tag-bill-cassidy","tag-daniel-cameron","tag-donald-trump","tag-ed-gallrein","tag-george-scherzer","tag-iran","tag-jeffrey-epstein","tag-kentucky","tag-lauren-boebert","tag-massie-gallrein-trump-kentucky-republican-primary","tag-melissa-strange","tag-mitch-mcconnell","tag-nate-morris","tag-package-100024-ap-online","tag-package-100373-mc-complete-state-national","tag-pete-hegseth","tag-product-30055-ap-kentucky-state-news-no-weather","tag-product-30598-ap-national-news-report-a-wire","tag-product-31998-ap-online-national-news","tag-product-32510-ap-online-general-election-news","tag-product-32520-ap-online-other-u-s-government-news","tag-product-46986-ap-online-top-stories","tag-san-antonio","tag-san-antonio-headlines","tag-san-antonio-news","tag-thomas-massie"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/300552","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=300552"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/300552\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/300553"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=300552"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=300552"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=300552"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}