Massie, a Kentucky Republican known for voting against his party and the White House at times, was ousted Tuesday when Ed Gallrein defeated him in the GOP House primary, according to the Associated Press. The loss ended Massie’s bid for another term after a campaign in which President Donald Trump made him a central target and pushed for the incumbent to be replaced.
Trump had reserved what the AP described as his fiercest attacks for Massie, portraying him as a lawmaker who had become an outlier in the House because he was willing to vote as he pleased rather than as party leaders demanded. The AP said the result capped a broader pattern in which Trump has used his influence to challenge Republican incumbents and sway primary contests across the country.
During Massie’s concession remarks, he told supporters, “If the legislative branch always votes with the president, we do have a king,” and he added, “But if lawmakers follow the Constitution, he said, ‘we have a republic.’” As the speech ended, the AP reported, chants of “2028!” and “President!” broke out. Massie responded, “You’ve made a compelling argument,” and said, “We’ll talk about it later.”
Trump also weighed in on Massie’s defeat, saying, “He deserves to lose.” The AP reported that Trump celebrated the outcome while preparing to travel to the U.S. Coast Guard Academy to deliver a commencement address, and that he singled out what he characterized as victories beyond Massie as well.
House Speaker Mike Johnson said he was not surprised Massie lost, and he pointed to the impact of presidential endorsements. “We don’t demand loyalty to the president,” Johnson said, adding that the GOP needs members “who are not, you know, trying to carve out their own lane.”
Massie’s defeat came amid other recent GOP primary developments where Trump’s backing played a role. The AP said the outcome followed Trump-led ousters of Sen. Bill Cassidy in Louisiana over the weekend and Trump’s endorsement on Tuesday of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton in his challenge to Sen. John Cornyn, which sent “chills and anger through the Senate.”
The AP described Massie’s congressional career as unusual even by libertarian-leaning GOP standards. First elected in 2012, he had stood out during an era when the party’s tea party wave was still influencing Kentucky politics, and he built a reputation as an engineer and inventor. The report said he designed patents and a debt calculator that shows deficits accumulating in red numerals, and that he wore a miniature version of that calculator as a lapel pin.
Before politics, the AP said Massie lived much of his life “off the grid” with his wife in a solar-power home he designed, raising four children and spending time with cattle and other routines associated in the report with do-it-yourself living. It also said he drank raw milk and drove an early Tesla.
The AP traced Massie’s rise politically to his willingness to buck the party and the president on policy fights. It said he voted against Trump’s major tax cuts bill because he was concerned about the measure’s several-trillion-dollar cost and the effect on deficits. The report also said he opposed Trump’s military forays against Iran and Venezuela and routinely voted against foreign aid, including to Israel.
The AP said one effort helped raise Massie’s profile, in particular a long-shot effort in partnership with Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna of California to force the Justice Department to release Jeffrey Epstein files. Khanna, the report said, posted on X that Massie “lost because he had the guts to stand up to the Epstein class and against the war.”
Trump attacked Massie early and often, the AP said, dating back to 2020 when he challenged Massie during the president’s first term over a disputed legislative move tied to a $2.2 trillion coronavirus aid package. At the time, the AP reported, Massie refused to allow the measure to be approved without a formal roll call, forcing lawmakers back to the Capitol, and Trump called him a “third rate Grandstander.”
The AP said Trump did not ease up even after Massie’s wife died in 2024. In 2025, Massie announced that he had remarried after proposing to Carolyn Grace Moffa, a former Paul staffer, on the steps of the Library of Congress, according to the AP. The report said Trump suggested Massie remarried too quickly, writing on social media that “his wife will soon find out that she’s stuck with a LOSER!”
Associated Press reporters Michelle L. Price in Washington and Thomas Beaumont in Des Moines, Iowa contributed to this report.