Thomas Massie loses Kentucky House primary to Trump-backed Republican challenger Ed Gallrein has won the Republican nomination for Kentucky’s fourth congressional District, beating incumbent Thomas Massie. Trump-backed Gallrein’s victory comes as Kentucky voters have also nominated Trump-endorsed Andy Barr in his race to fill the seat Mitch McConnell will vacate when he retires next year.
Here’s my colleague David Smith with more on Gallrein’s victory:
Donald Trump displayed his supremacy over the Republican party on Tuesday when voters in northern Kentucky rejected the maverick congressman Thomas Massie in favour of the US president’s hand-picked challenger.
Ed Gallrein, a retired Navy Seal and farmer who was recruited into the race by Trump, defeated the seven-term incumbent in a primary election in Kentucky’s fourth congressional district in what the president’s allies framed as a test of whether dissent could still exist inside today’s Republican party.
The election took place as voters in five other states – Pennsylvania, Georgia, Alabama, Oregon and Idaho – went to the polls on Tuesday, to decide their nominees for the November general election in what was the biggest primary night of the year so far. Earlier on Tuesday, Trump endorsed Ken Paxton, the scandal-plagued Texas attorney general running for Senate, in a primary runoff against incumbent John Cornyn, infuriating some in his party.
In Kentucky, Massie now joins the ranks of Liz Cheney, Adam Kinzinger, Jeff Flake, Mitt Romney and other elected Republicans who were either ousted or decided to retire because of their party’s capitulation to Trump.