Trump vs. Massie becomes a loyalty test for Kentucky voters
By Jeff Zeleny, CNN
Vanceburg, Kentucky (CNN) — Joni Pugh feels like she’s stuck in the middle of a bitter family feud between her president and her congressman.
As a loyal Republican, she likes them both – and that is where her predicament begins.
No Republican has infuriated President Donald Trump more than Rep. Thomas Massie, which has placed him in a precarious position heading into Tuesday’s 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.
Their long-running duel will be settled by voters like Pugh, who has admired Trump for the last decade and Massie for much longer.
“I’m a little more worried than I’ve ever been for him because he’s getting such pushback from Trump,” Pugh said. “I’m not putting Trump down at all because I’m very much a fan of his, but I’m still going to vote for Thomas. He’s a great guy and is very careful about how he wants our taxpayer money to be spent.”
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.
“You can’t escape it. It’s everywhere,” Pugh said of the advertising deluge. “That’s what really worries me. I’m afraid he won’t make it this time. I don’t think he’s ever gone through anything like this.”
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.
“Give me somebody with a warm body to beat Massie,” Trump said. “And I got somebody with a warm body, but a big, beautiful brain and a great patriot. He’s unbelievable.”
For months, Massie ran with an air of confidence that his contrarian brand among friends and neighbors in Kentucky’s 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.
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.
“The race is 100% Trump vs. Massie,” Shane Noem, chairman of the Kenton County Republican Party, told CNN. “It’s become a pick-a-side moment.”
‘This guy named Thomas Massie’
It’s 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.
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’s massive domestic policy and spending cuts package known as the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.
“We’ll get 100% of the vote except for this guy named Thomas Massie,” Trump said at the National Prayer Breakfast earlier this year, going on to call the congressman a “moron.”
“It’s like they just vote no. They love voting no.”
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 after months of calling the issue a “Democratic hoax.”
“There’s three branches of government and we’re supposed to keep each other accountable,” Massie said outside the Capitol, surrounded by Epstein abuse survivors. “That’s what we’re doing here today in the people’s house.”
He’s also been among the loudest Republican critics of the Iran war, which he said has made him a target for strong supporters of Israel.
Inside the White House, advisers say, there are few political figures of either party – and certainly no Republicans – 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.
“I’ve dedicated my life to serving my country, and I’m ready to answer the call again,” Gallrein said as he announced his candidacy. “This district is Trump Country. The president doesn’t need obstacles in Congress — he needs backup.”
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.
“You are next,” top Trump adviser Chris LaCivita wrote 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.
‘The elephant in the room’
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.
“Let’s just talk about the elephant in the room,” Massie said. “I 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.”
It’s far from the contrarian brand, with an independent and libertarian streak, that Massie has often touted and many constituents have embraced for years.
In 2024, Trump carried the district with 67% of the vote, while Massie ran unopposed.
“There’s a lot of support for Trump here in the community. There’s a lot of support for Thomas in the community,” said Joe Bentley, a goat farmer and schoolteacher who once served alongside Massie on the Lewis County board. “They’re different characters, but they’re very similar.”
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.
“How do I square this? Trump doesn’t like him, but I like him and I don’t know what to do,” Doan told CNN, recalling his conversations with Republican voters. “I always compare it to mommy and daddy fighting. We love both of those people. We love Trump, we love Thomas.”
Yet some critics are more concerned by Massie’s voting record, particularly on spending measures related to Kentucky, far more than the lingering discord with Trump.
“Thomas Massie has burnt every bridge he could possibly have to be effective,” said Steve Frank, a former Covington city commissioner. “If we have a need for more money for the new bridge that we’re trying to get build or at the airport or if there’s a regulatory issue because trucking is such a big thing around here, he’s not going to get a hearing.”
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.
“I’ve known him all my life and I’ll be voting for him because of what kind of person he is,” said Kenny Claxon, a retired cook and restaurant owner, stopping for a moment on his walk around Vanceburg. “He’s the right person for the job. It doesn’t matter what Trump or anybody else says.”
Conversations with more than a dozen people here – nearly all of whom voted for Trump – showed signs of support and worry for Massie. Several residents wondered aloud whether their congressman could withstand the political onslaught against him.
Not Ramona Bivens, who believes the attacks could backfire.
“I’ll vote for Thomas because Trump’s giving him such a hard time,” Bivens said, holding a cigarette as she ate a hot dog at the Garrison Shortstop diner. “I just think it’s silly. It’s politics and they’re running for office. They’re not running against each other.”
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