Politics

Trump Ousted the Last Republican Who Voted Against Him

By Mike Harper · May 20, 2026

Thomas Massie spent eight terms in Congress representing northern Kentucky. He voted against the Iran war funding. He voted against the debt ceiling deal. He voted against the tax bill. He pushed for the release of Epstein files. He blocked Trump’s legislative agenda more than any other Republican in the chamber. He ran unopposed in 2024.

On Tuesday, he lost.

Ed Gallrein — a fifth-generation farmer and former Navy SEAL backed by Trump, Pete Hegseth, and a $15 million advertising campaign that the parties involved are calling the most expensive House primary in American political history — won the Republican nomination for Kentucky’s 4th Congressional District after polls closed at 6 PM Eastern. Massie conceded within hours, calling the race the “most expensive per voter” in history and acknowledging that the financial disparity was unsurmountable in a closed Republican primary.

The campaign against him was precise. Trump called him “the worst congressman in history” and said Kentucky should put him “out of business.” Hegseth flew to Hebron on Monday — the night before the election — to campaign for Gallrein in person. The advertising spending of $15 million in a single House primary that typically sees less than $500,000 spent was not an accident. It was a deliberate demonstration that the cost of defying Trump is total political destruction.

The result carries a specific meaning that extends beyond Kentucky. Massie was the last member of the House Republican caucus who voted against Trump’s priorities with any consistency. He was philosophically distinct from the Freedom Caucus members who sometimes broke with Trump — his votes against debt expansion and executive war powers were rooted in libertarian principle, not tactical positioning. He represented a version of Republicanism that is now, with his defeat, formally extinct in the House.

Cassidy lost in Louisiana last Saturday. Five Indiana state senators lost earlier this month. Massie lost Tuesday night. The pattern is now three-for-three. Every Republican who defied Trump on a significant vote and faced a primary challenger funded by the White House’s political operation has lost.

The practical legislative consequence is measurable. The bills Massie blocked or slowed — the debt limit deal, the government funding packages, the Iran authorization — will now advance through a caucus that has no remaining member willing to trade their seat for their principle. Whether that produces better legislation or worse legislation is a question the next two years will answer.

Gallrein will almost certainly win in November in a district Trump carried by 28 points in 2024. Massie spent eight terms winning by similarly dominant margins. The margin that ended his career was not a general election. It was a primary electorate of roughly 80,000 Republican voters, 48,000 of whom chose the candidate Trump wanted.