Washington:
US President Donald Trump tightened his grip on the Republican Party on Tuesday as Kentucky voters ousted one of the few conservative lawmakers willing to challenge him openly. Congressman Thomas Massie’s defeat, which he conceded some three hours after polls closed, marked another victory in Trump’s campaign to punish Republican dissent.
It follows the rout of Indiana state lawmakers who defied the US president on redistricting and the weekend collapse of Senator Bill Cassidy’s reelection bid in Louisiana.
Massie’s loss came after months of attacks from Trump, more than $32 million in ad spending and an unusual campaign appearance by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on behalf of Trump-backed challenger Ed Gallrein, turning a once-sleepy Kentucky primary into a national loyalty test.
Several states held primaries Tuesday to pick candidates for the November midterm elections, but the standout contest was in Kentucky. Massie, a seven-term congressman, has been one of the president’s most persistent internal critics.
The race was being watched as a measure of whether Trump’s grip on Republican voters remains strong despite war, inflation and sliding national approval ratings — and whether there is still room in the party for lawmakers willing to break with him.
Massie has angered Trump by opposing US military action in Iran and Venezuela, criticising aid to Israel, resisting parts of the president’s agenda and helping push for the release of files related to multimillionaire sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Trump endorsed Gallrein, a farmer and retired US Navy SEAL, in what media have described as the most expensive House primary in American history — much of the spending from pro-Israeli groups opposed to Massie.
“They decided to buy the seat,” Massie told supporters in his concession speech. “They used a lot of dirty tricks but we stayed the course.”
The president has spent months attacking the avowedly libertarian 55-year-old former engineer and inventor, labeling him a disloyal “moron,” a “nut job” and a “major sleazebag.”
“He was a bad guy, he deserved to lose,” Trump told reporters after networks called the race.
‘Conservative Mindset’
Back in Kentucky, Rob Barkley — a disillusioned former Trump backer in Covington — said the president’s attacks had only made him more supportive of Massie.
“He’s on the Republican side so he has a conservative mindset,” Barkley told CNN after casting his ballot. “But he’s not as far-right leaning as Trump’s politics.”
Massie — who has voted with Trump around 90 percent of the time in the president’s second term — cast the race as a test of independence inside the Republican Party.
“I’m not running against President Trump. Most of the people voting for me support President Trump like I do,” Massie told Fox News.
Hegseth made his unusual appearance in Massie’s district Monday to campaign for Gallrein.
It is against the law for federal employees to engage in partisan political activity while on duty, but Hegseth’s office said he was acting in a personal capacity and that no taxpayer funds would be used.
Trump later revealed that the Pentagon chief’s time out from his official duties came just hours before the United States was expecting to launch a new military assault on Iran, although hostilities were ultimately postponed.
The Kentucky showdown came after Trump allies routed state lawmakers in Indiana who resisted his redistricting demands, and after Louisiana’s Cassidy — who voted to convict Trump following his impeachment over the 2021 US Capitol riot — failed to make a Senate runoff.
Elsewhere Tuesday, Georgia voters were choosing candidates in Senate and gubernatorial primaries.
In the latter, another Republican who had crossed Trump, Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger — who stood up to the president when he wrongly claimed to have won the southern state in his 2020 defeat to Joe Biden — also lost on Tuesday.
The White House was quick to exalt Trump’s enduring influence over the Republican Party and its primaries.
“Do not ever doubt President Trump and his political power,” communications director Steven Cheung posted on X.
