Trump-backed Navy SEAL vet delivers major blow to Massie in fiery GOP primary
President Donald Trump on Tuesday scored another victory in his revenge campaign against GOP critics, further flexing his grip on the Republican Party after a string of primary wins in...
By Fox News · Fox News
President Donald Trump on Tuesday scored another victory in his revenge campaign against GOP critics, further flexing his grip on the Republican Party after a string of primary wins in recent weeks. Trump-backed Ed Gallrein, a former Navy SEAL and Kentucky farmer, defeated the president’s longtime antagonist, Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., according to The Associated Press. Gallrein’s victory represents a major win for Trump’s political operation and pro-Israel allied groups, who spent aggressively to unseat the sitting lawmaker. TRUMP TARGETS MASSIE IN EXPLOSIVE KENTUCKY SHOWDOWN AS SIX STATES HOLD HIGH-STAKES PRIMARIES Trump repeatedly unleashed on Massie in unusually personal terms in the final days of the primary contest, while spotlighting his endorsement of Gallrein, who he recruited into the race. The president called Massie, who has frequently opposed parts of his legislative agenda, the "worst ‘Republican’ congressman in history" on Monday. Gallrein echoed the president’s attack in an interview with Fox News Digital on Monday. "My opponent, he's running against President Trump and the agenda that has been put forward by the Republican Party," Gallrein said. But Massie fired back that Trump’s endorsement of Gallrein was not an insurmountable challenge due to support among the conservative grassroots for his maverick politics. "I've got the groundswell here, like my events. I've got 100–200, sometimes 300 people show up," Massie told Fox News Digital. "My opponent had to cancel events because he couldn't get enough people, you know, to fill up a Dairy Queen, half a Dairy Queen." "We've been able to match them to go toe-to-toe with them on TV using grassroots donors, and it's really galvanized the nation," he continued. Massie also charged that Pentagon Secretary Pete Hegseth’s decision to campaign for Gallrein on Monday showed Trump’s political operation believed Massie was "up in the polls." "They wouldn't be sending the Secretary of War to my congressional dis…