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Rep. Thomas Massie (R–Ky.), the libertarian-adjacent lawmaker who clashed with President Donald Trump over spending, tariffs, wars, and the Epstein files, was defeated in Tuesday’s primary election by Ed Gallrein, a Trump-backed challenger.
The Associated Press called the race shortly before 8 p.m., with Gallrein leading Massie by about 10 points with nearly three-quarters of the vote reported.
The contest was widely regarded as the most expensive primary election in congressional history. More than $32 million was spent on the race, much of it by pro-Trump and pro-Israel groups that sought to give Massie the boot.
Clearly, the stakes here were higher than just determining a spot on the November ballot in Kentucky’s 4th congressional district, a deep red stretch along the state’s northern frontier.
Tuesday’s result further solidifies Trump’s firm hold on the Republican Party, even at a time when that grip seemed to be loosening amid an unpopular war, rising inflation, and Trump’s falling approval ratings. With Republican primary voters, however, Trump’s endorsement is still the most important thing—at least as long as it is backed by millions of dollars in campaign spending.
In various ratings systems maintained by groups such as Heritage Action and Conservative Review, Massie has always been an exemplary congressman. Once, that would have meant something. When Massie was first elected to Congress in 2012, the Tea Party era was in full swing, and Republicans were expected to pass those purity tests or be cast out.
Now, being liked by Trump is the only test that matters. Gallrein passed it. He’s even defended Trump’s war in Iran as part of a “five-dimensional chess” effort to reset “the entire global power structure.”
Massie held on longer than most, but his path into political retirement is well-worn. It has been trodden by many Tea Party–era Republicans who stuck to their principles only to discover that principles no longer matter in the contemporary GOP.
“With Trump’s ascendance, whatever energy was left in the Tea Party was pure populist rage and tribal animus rather than anti-government in character,” wrote Reason‘s Nick Gillespie this week. Even if Massie had won, Gillespie observed, “the GOP of which he is part is very different from the one he belonged to when he first arrived in Washington.”
There is some irony in the fact that Massie once wrote, in the pages of Reason, that libertarians ought to work within the Republican Party to achieve their political ends rather than eschew the two-party system. “If you want to field another team, you have to either completely replace one that’s there now (within an election cycle or two) or work inside one that already exists,” he wrote. “The most expedient path for libertarians is to work within the red team.”
And Massie was, in many ways, the best example of what that collaboration might achieve. He worked his way up in the House to land a coveted seat on the powerful Rules Committee (until being removed last year). He played a significant role in the budget process, though he did not have enough support to reduce the growth of spending. He was a key figure in the debate over toppling then–Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy (R–Calif.), whose removal Massie opposed. He helped lead an effort to block Trump’s tariffs that were later ruled unlawful by the Supreme Court.
Through all that, Massie was committed to the principles of limited government. But he also put a huge target on his back. And, in the end, he was dismissed by the party’s voters for being insufficiently loyal to its dear leader. It is difficult to find any other explanation.
That happened despite the fact that Massie’s positions on war, spending, and the Epstein files are more in line with Trump’s campaign promises than Trump’s actions in office have been. For taking those stands, Massie has been labeled a “moron” by Trump, who has also accused the congressman of being “disloyal to the United States.”
If this is how the Republican Party treats the libertarian-leaning lawmakers in its midst, then libertarians should take note and act accordingly.
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