{"id":642601,"date":"2026-05-14T12:18:12","date_gmt":"2026-05-14T12:18:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/642601\/"},"modified":"2026-05-14T12:18:12","modified_gmt":"2026-05-14T12:18:12","slug":"trump-vs-massie-becomes-a-loyalty-test-for-kentucky-voters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/642601\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump vs. Massie becomes a loyalty test for Kentucky voters"},"content":{"rendered":"

Vanceburg, Kentucky\u00a0\u2014\u00a0\n <\/p>\n

\n Joni Pugh feels like she\u2019s stuck in the middle of a bitter family feud between her president and her congressman.\n <\/p>\n

\n As a loyal Republican, she likes them both \u2013 and that is where her predicament begins.\n <\/p>\n

\n No Republican has infuriated President Donald Trump more than Rep. Thomas Massie, which has placed him in a precarious position heading into Tuesday\u2019s Republican primary in Kentucky. The race is already one of the most expensive primary contests ever, with more than $29 million spent on advertising alone, setting up the biggest political test Massie has ever faced.\n <\/p>\n

\n Their long-running duel<\/a> will be settled by voters like Pugh, who has admired Trump for the last decade and Massie for much longer.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cI\u2019m a little more worried than I\u2019ve ever been for him because he\u2019s getting such pushback from Trump,\u201d Pugh said. \u201cI\u2019m not putting Trump down at all because I\u2019m very much a fan of his, but I\u2019m still going to vote for Thomas. He\u2019s a great guy and is very careful about how he wants our taxpayer money to be spent.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Here in northeastern Kentucky, voters say the campaign seems to be getting nastier by the day, with attack ads featuring AI-generated images flooding television screens, flyers filling up mailboxes and gossip running red-hot about the twists and turns of which side has the upper hand.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cYou can\u2019t escape it. It\u2019s everywhere,\u201d Pugh said of the advertising deluge. \u201cThat\u2019s what really worries me. I\u2019m afraid he won\u2019t make it this time. I don\u2019t think he\u2019s ever gone through anything like this.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Massie faces Ed Gallrein, a farmer and former Navy SEAL whom Trump and his allies recruited into the race. Trump paid a visit to Kentucky in March to make his choice clear as he invited Gallrein to the stage.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cGive me somebody with a warm body to beat Massie,\u201d Trump said. \u201cAnd I got somebody with a warm body, but a big, beautiful brain and a great patriot. He\u2019s unbelievable.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\"Ed<\/p>\n

\n For months, Massie ran with an air of confidence that his contrarian brand among friends and neighbors in Kentucky\u2019s 4th Congressional District would carry him to an eighth term. Blue Massie signs dot the landscape across his district along the Ohio River, which stretches from the eastern suburbs of Louisville to the northern Kentucky suburbs of Cincinnati and the outskirts of Appalachia.\n <\/p>\n

\n But the contest is remarkably close in the final days of the race, GOP strategists and party officials say, with even some longtime allies wondering if the tide has turned.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cThe race is 100% Trump vs. Massie,\u201d Shane Noem, chairman of the Kenton County Republican Party, told CNN. \u201cIt\u2019s become a pick-a-side moment.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n It\u2019s hard to pinpoint just when exactly the relationship between Trump and Massie first soured. Massie has fought the establishment of both parties since first winning his seat 14 years ago in the tea party era as a fierce deficit hawk.\n <\/p>\n

\n He has consistently opposed Republican priorities in Congress, including military spending and foreign aid, and defied party leadership on one bill after another. Last year, he was one of two House Republicans to vote against the president\u2019s massive domestic policy and spending cuts package<\/a> known as the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cWe\u2019ll get 100% of the vote except for this guy named Thomas Massie,\u201d Trump said at the National Prayer Breakfast earlier this year, going on to call the congressman a \u201cmoron.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cIt\u2019s like they just vote no. They love voting no.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Massie also helped lead the charge to direct the Justice Department to release its investigative files into convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. The president ultimately signed the Epstein Files Transparency Act<\/a> after months of calling the issue a \u201cDemocratic hoax.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cThere\u2019s three branches of government and we\u2019re supposed to keep each other accountable,\u201d Massie said outside the Capitol, surrounded by Epstein abuse survivors. \u201cThat\u2019s what we\u2019re doing here today in the people\u2019s house.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\"Rep.<\/p>\n

\n He\u2019s also been among the loudest Republican critics of the Iran war, which he said has made him a target for strong supporters of Israel.\n <\/p>\n

\n Inside the White House, advisers say, there are few political figures of either party \u2013 and certainly no Republicans \u2013 who irritate Trump more than Massie. The president met with Gallrein in the Oval Office on October 17, urging him to challenge Massie. A week later, he did.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cI\u2019ve dedicated my life to serving my country, and I\u2019m ready to answer the call again,\u201d Gallrein said as he announced his candidacy. \u201cThis district is Trump Country. The president doesn\u2019t need obstacles in Congress \u2014 he needs backup.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n The president has asked about the race frequently in recent weeks, aides say, expressing his intent to defeat the seven-term congressman to send a message to Republicans that opposing Trump has consequences.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cYou are next,\u201d top Trump adviser Chris LaCivita wrote<\/a> in an X post to Massie last week after Indiana voters sided with Trump-backed candidates who ran against Republicans who stood up to White House demands to draw new congressional maps in December.\n <\/p>\n

\n In one of his closing ads, Massie reminds voters that he has often stood with Trump, eager to press his Republican credentials and blunt any impressions that he reflexively opposes him.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cLet\u2019s just talk about the elephant in the room,\u201d Massie said. \u201cI agree with President Trump a whole lot more than I disagree with him. The list is long: the SAVE America Act to require proof of citizenship to vote, stopping immigrant welfare, fighting the woke agenda, defending the Second Amendment, protecting the life of the unborn, securing the border.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n It\u2019s far from the contrarian brand, with an independent and libertarian streak, that Massie has often touted and many constituents have embraced for years.\n <\/p>\n

\n In 2024, Trump carried the district with 67% of the vote, while Massie ran unopposed.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of support for Trump here in the community. There\u2019s a lot of support for Thomas in the community,\u201d said Joe Bentley, a goat farmer and schoolteacher who once served alongside Massie on the Lewis County board. \u201cThey\u2019re different characters, but they\u2019re very similar.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n State Rep. Steven Doan, a Republican and longtime friend of Massie who is also on the ballot this year, said he has heard one question above all as he knocks on doors in the district.\n <\/p>\n

\"State<\/p>\n

\n \u201cHow do I square this? Trump doesn\u2019t like him, but I like him and I don\u2019t know what to do,\u201d Doan told CNN, recalling his conversations with Republican voters. \u201cI always compare it to mommy and daddy fighting. We love both of those people. We love Trump, we love Thomas.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Yet some critics are more concerned by Massie\u2019s voting record, particularly on spending measures related to Kentucky, far more than the lingering discord with Trump.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cThomas Massie has burnt every bridge he could possibly have to be effective,\u201d said Steve Frank, a former Covington city commissioner. \u201cIf we have a need for more money for the new bridge that we\u2019re trying to get build or at the airport or if there\u2019s a regulatory issue because trucking is such a big thing around here, he\u2019s not going to get a hearing.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n When the ballots are counted Tuesday night, the outcome may provide a window into whether attack ads and a presidential megaphone can outweigh a lifetime of relationships Massie has built across his corner of Kentucky.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cI\u2019ve known him all my life and I\u2019ll be voting for him because of what kind of person he is,\u201d said Kenny Claxon, a retired cook and restaurant owner, stopping for a moment on his walk around Vanceburg. \u201cHe\u2019s the right person for the job. It doesn\u2019t matter what Trump or anybody else says.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Conversations with more than a dozen people here \u2013 nearly all of whom voted for Trump \u2013 showed signs of support and worry for Massie. Several residents wondered aloud whether their congressman could withstand the political onslaught against him.\n <\/p>\n

\n Not Ramona Bivens, who believes the attacks could backfire.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cI\u2019ll vote for Thomas because Trump\u2019s giving him such a hard time,\u201d Bivens said, holding a cigarette as she ate a hot dog at the Garrison Shortstop diner. \u201cI just think it\u2019s silly. It\u2019s politics and they\u2019re running for office. They\u2019re not running against each other.\u201d\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Vanceburg, Kentucky\u00a0\u2014\u00a0 Joni Pugh feels like she\u2019s stuck in the middle of a bitter family feud between her…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":642602,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[23,3,21,19,22,20,25,24],"class_list":["post-642601","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-states","tag-america","tag-news","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/642601","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=642601"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/642601\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/642602"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=642601"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=642601"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=642601"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}