On Wednesday, President Donald Trump held a rally in Massie's northern Kentucky district and called his fellow Republican a "nutjob" who should lose their party's upcoming primary. As Associated Press reported, the president has endorsed Massie's challenger, Ed Gallrein, in Kentucky's primary on May 19.
"We've got to get rid of this loser," said Trump.
According to Fox News, Trump posted on Truth Social last year saying that Massie should be primaried and that he was going to lead the charge against him. This came after Massie said he was not going to vote for the government funding bill Trump was urging Republicans to support at that time.
Massie was previously a Lewis County Judge Executive before joining Congress as the representative for Kentucky's 4th district in 2012.
Gallrein is a farmer, business owner and retired Navy SEAL. He previously ran for Kentucky state senator in 2024 but lost and is now throwing his hat in for Massie’s congressional seat.
Gary Bauer, chairman of the Campaign for Working Families, was born and raised in Massie's district.
"Look, I understand why the president is upset. In a narrowly divided Congress and a narrowly divided country, there's no room right now for prima donnas, for people that ‘it's my way or the highway.’ And that, unfortunately, is what Congressman Massie has done a number of times," states Bauer.
Bauer says there's no majority in Congress for the kind of purity that Massie tries to push.
"It's either going to be the president succeeding in things or the Democrat party, led by the extreme left, increasingly end up winning everything. I think Congressman Massie has earned the anger of President Trump. It's unfortunate, but I hope that a change is made there," states Bauer.
Bauer says that Kentucky’s 4th Congressional District is very conservative.
"Donald Trump has done incredibly well in that congressional district when he's running for president. I think if I were Massie, I'd be trying to come up with plans for my second career," states Bauer.
However, according to Kalshi News, Massie hasn’t lost any points after losing Trump’s endorsement. Prediction markets show that his price rose to 65%, meanwhile Gallrein’s dropped to 35%.
