Kentucky GOP primary turns into MAGA food fight

A Kentucky GOP primary that began as a challenge to Rep. Thomas Massie has ballooned into a messy, celebrity-fueled proxy brawl—complete with unusual surrogates, personal allegations, militia endorsements, and a Fox News blackout—while the actual vote appears

By the time the camera lights were on and the surrogates started rotating through Kentucky, the contest no longer looked like a normal primary fight.

Last summer, President Donald Trump orchestrated a primary challenge against Rep. Thomas Massie. the only House Republican willing to occasionally stand up to the president—at least the only one not retiring. But the race that followed has metastasized into something much bigger than two candidates. It has become. in the words of many of its participants. a referendum on Trump. a proxy for Israeli influence in American politics. and a full-on MAGA-versus-MAGA showdown that now gives podcasters. grifters. and self-styled influencers room to crowd the frame.

Heading into today’s primary vote. Trump used the “full power” of his office and his surrogates in right-wing media to attack a member of his own party. On Monday. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth took a break from the Iran war and from attacking civilian vessels in the Caribbean to fly to Kentucky to rally against Massie. Trump himself released a video titled “GET RID OF THOMAS MASSIE. ” urging voters: “I hope you’re going to put him out of business. We’re in fight against the worst Congressman in the history of our country. He is so bad… So, get rid of Thomas Massie.”.

The campaign’s final stretch—already expected to be the most expensive primary in US history—has brought a particular kind of chaos. Right-wing provocateur Laura Loomer spent Monday promoting a two-hour interview with Cynthia West. a woman who claims she dated Massie shortly after his wife died. Loomer’s interview focused heavily on Massie’s sex life, as West’s claims grew increasingly salacious. She alleged that Massie has a “boner phone” he allegedly used to communicate with women secretly. Loomer also posted texts that she says show Massie referring to his penis as “pinecone.” The measurable effect on Kentucky voters has been hard to pin down.

Massie has denied any wrongdoing and called the episode politically motivated.

His defenders argue that the whole episode is less about policy than a scramble to weaken a libertarian with a cult following among young conservative men. Massie’s crowd showed up at his farm this weekend with irregulars rallied by Matt Kibbe. an early organizer from the same tea party movement that produced Massie. On social media. Kibbe posted video from the farm. pointing to Massie cutting his grass without having “ever applied for PPP loan. ” adding a jab at a figure named “Bailout Ed. ” who he says never paid his loan back to taxpayers. In person. the weekend pitch has been more domestic than confrontational: Massie showed them how he mows. makes pizza in his wood-fired oven. and plays the banjo—while they filmed and made podcasts.

Some larger names also crossed paths with the campaign. Former Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) made the pilgrimage, and Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) appeared as well. After Boebert’s appearance, Loomer boosted West’s claims that Boebert had had sex with the candidate. Trump then called Boebert “weak-minded” for campaigning for Massie and suggested that “anybody who can be that dumb deserves a good Primary fight!”.

The attention kept widening. Kyle Rittenhouse. who shot three people and killed two during the 2020 George Floyd protests in Kenosha. Wisconsin. had been scheduled to appear at a pro-gun campaign event for one of Massie’s acolytes. State Rep. TJ Roberts, on May 16. While he was in town, Rittenhouse volunteered for Massie. He called Massie “the greatest congressman. I believe. in a very long time…He supported me from the beginning.” Rittenhouse’s endorsement triggered an outpouring of hate on social media. with other MAGA Trump supporters deciding their former Second Amendment hero was now a “douchebag.”.

Massie’s backing has also come from people whose presence carries its own political weight. Stewart Rhodes, the founder of the Oath Keepers militia group, showed up at a campaign event with Trump’s nemesis. Rhodes would still be serving an 18-year prison sentence for seditious conspiracy for his role in the January 6 riot at the US Capitol if Trump hadn’t commuted his sentence last year. Rhodes may also benefit from Trump’s new $1.7 billion slush fund for victims of “government weaponization.” Rhodes had written a full-throated endorsement of Massie on his Substack. praising Massie for standing on “principle. ” reading bills. voting against “unconstitutional spending. ” “endless undeclared wars. ” “surveillance overreach. ” and “the erosion of our God-given rights. ” and arguing his loyalty is to the Constitution and the American people “not to the swamp.” Rhodes wrote that he drove from Texas to Kentucky “to knock on doors for him.”.

Another veteran joined the chorus: retired Green Beret Ivan Raiklin. who describes himself as Trump’s “Secretary of Retribution.” He supported Massie against the president he says has been insufficiently committed to payback. declaring on social media that it was “Thomas Massie vs the entire War Machine. Deep State. and Foreign Lobby.” Raiklin also spent part of Monday antagonizing CNN’s Jake Tapper. who was on hand.

For all the competing factions swirling around this primary, one detail keeps getting obscured: Massie is not running against Trump.

He is running against a real opponent—former Navy SEAL Ed Gallrein. Massie’s campaign handlers have largely kept Gallrein away from reporters who might ask unscripted questions about anything other than his devotion to the president. Even Raiklin, a fellow veteran, couldn’t get him to engage.

Gallrein also refused to debate Massie. Massie told me recently that it may be the “smartest decision he’s ever made” for someone Trump had previously backhanded as a “warm body” when he first endorsed him in his last-minute addition to the race in October.

Journalist Ken Klippenstein observed that Gallrein explained his reticence by declaring his background “classified.” Klippenstein wrote that Gallrein’s campaign touts endorsements from unnamed military officers. while the identities of those officers and other supposedly sensitive details are redacted to burnish a “security theater.” Klippenstein said the strategy appears to let Trump’s endorsement and the SEAL mystique do the work while avoiding scrutiny. Klippenstein also wrote that in the few appearances Gallrein has made. the message to voters has been consistent: the most important things about him are classified. the president has seen the file. and “that should be enough.”.

Even as the campaign grows louder, the math of Kentucky voting remains small enough to be sobering. Despite the national interest. the expected price tag—up to $35 million—and all the political theater. the outcome of the Kentucky primary is likely to hinge on votes from the same “tiny sliver” of the electorate that always picks the primary winner.

In 2024, a presidential election year, only 17 percent of registered Republicans voted in Massie’s last primary. The highest turnout came from those 62 and older—described as the Fox News crowd. By contrast, only six percent of the more youthful Republican podcast audience, those between 25 and 34, cast a ballot.

Trump has also made sure that his sycophants on Fox stay on the anti-Massie message. Massie. once a frequent guest on the network as one of the most conservative members of Congress. hasn’t appeared on any of its shows since March 2025—around the same time Trump first called for his ouster from Congress. Massie told me recently that the media blackout has been damaging. “Fox is the biggest source of information about this race. ” Massie said. “given the viewing habits of people in my district.”.

Recent polling suggests that demographic is indeed leaning toward Gallrein, or at least toward Trump. One poll shows Gallrein at 49% and Massie at 42%, with 9% not sure. It also reports Massie +9 among age 18-49, Massie +50 among age 30-44, Gallrein +4 among age 45-64, and Gallrein +29 among age 65+. It shows Massie +10 among nonwhite voters and Gallrein +9 among white voters; it lists Gallrein +11 among female voters and. in the same chart. indicates a male number that trails beyond what’s fully visible in the image. A separate poll released Monday finds nearly 15 percent of likely voters have no opinion about Gallrein. compared with 6 percent for Massie—and yet Gallrein is up by 7 points.

For a campaign that is selling itself as a referendum on power. influence. and loyalty. the truth may be more ordinary than its participants admit: come primary day. Kentucky’s choice may still land on who shows up from a narrow slice of voters—while the rest of the country watches the spectacle unfold.

Kentucky primary Thomas Massie Donald Trump Pete Hegseth Ed Gallrein Laura Loomer Cynthia West Kyle Rittenhouse Stewart Rhodes Oath Keepers Ivan Raiklin Matt Kibbe Lauren Boebert Matt Gaetz Fox News MAGA