HEBRON, Ky. — Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., thought he could defy political gravity. Instead, he came crashing down to earth.

After a campaign marked by unconventional energy, a unique message, an unusual coalition and some careful criticism of the Trump administration, Massie became the latest victim of President Donald Trump’s revenge tour on Tuesday, losing his primary to Ed Gallrein, a former Navy SEAL and farmer who secured Trump’s endorsement.

It was Trump’s third recent victory in his hunt for retribution, after ousting Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La. — who supported Trump’s impeachment in 2021 — just days earlier, and taking out five Indiana state senators two weeks ago who recently opposed the GOP’s redistricting plan.

The results bear a number of lessons.

For GOP lawmakers considering crossing Trump, Massie’s loss is a warning. It’s a sign that Trump — despite national headwinds and sagging poll numbers — still wields considerable power in the Republican Party, and that crossing him could spell political disaster.

But for Massie, it’s the GOP which should be concerned by Tuesday’s outcome.

“It’s dangerous when you shrink the tent,” Massie told MS NOW Tuesday night at his primary night watch party following his loss.

“I give him a lot of credit for growing the tent and building a coalition that included people like Bobby Kennedy and Tulsi Gabbard and MAHA and DOGE,” Massie said of Trump. “But one by one, those people are being forced out of the party, or those — the people who support those people are being forced out.”

Massie said his defeat, and Trump’s victory, had “pared the tree tonight.” And it could come back to haunt Republicans.

“It got pruned,” he said of the party’s coalition. “And we’ll see if there’s enough tree left to win in November and to have a governing majority.”

Massie finished nearly 10 percentage points behind Gallrein on Tuesday, with the incumbent securing just over 47,000 votes to the challengers more than 57,822, according to The Associated Press. After Massie projected confidence for months, it was a resounding loss.

It was also the culmination of a years-long feud between Massie and Trump, with the libertarian-leaning congressman voting against the GOP’s reconciliation bill, consistently criticizing the Iran War and, most notably, successfully pushing to release the Jeffrey Epstein files.

Massie introduced the discharge petition to force a vote on the Epstein files, recruited three Republicans to join him in the effort and get the documents released, and then incessantly kept national focus on the files. All three actions enraged Trump.

In a way, the Epstein files sealed Massie’s demise. Trump urged Gallrein to get into the race just as the Epstein saga was taking hold, and he officially launched his bid amid the frenzy. 

Despite that reality, Massie says he doesn’t regret his actions at all.

“That’s the best bill that’s ever been put into law,” Massie told MS NOW. “And the fact of the matter is, it doesn’t expire even when my congressional term ends. That bill lasts forever, so even if we can’t get Todd Blanche to do his job, the next Attorney General could actually prosecute Todd Blanche for not doing his job, and if the next Attorney General doesn’t do that, then the next Attorney General is at least obligated to release the Epstein files within 30 days of taking office.”

While Massie says the lesson learned from Tuesday’s race should be a warning of a shrinking GOP, Republican leadership sees it differently.

Asked about the lesson of Massie’s lost on Wednesday, Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said the message was that Republicans need lawmakers who want to run on the America First agenda and who are not “trying to carve out their own lane and do something that’s destructive or counterproductive, I think, to the agenda.”

“That’s what happened,” Johnson said. “I think that’s the message.”

Despite his electoral loss, Massie is riding high on a personal level. 

After his defeat was official, the Kentucky Republican gave a rousing, nearly 30-minute speech to supporters that sounded more like a celebration of his career than a eulogy mourning of his loss. 

“If I had known this speech was gonna be this fun to give, I would’ve come out 15 minutes sooner,” he said.

He then worked the room for more than two hours, thanking voters and snapping selfies. One of his backers held a revamped Massie sign, covering “United States Congress” with “President.”

Finally, Massie declared victory — albeit a different kind of triumph.

“A lot of people said this didn’t sound like a concession speech; it sounded like a victory speech. It’s because I didn’t write a concession speech, because we win either way,” he told MS NOW. “They have elevated my voice by making this the most expensive race in congressional history for a primary.”

“They didn’t just draw a target on me,” he continued. “They put a light on me, and I have more ability to speak to a broader audience.”

It’s a fitting ending for Massie, the quirky political gadfly who’s unflinchingly proud of his libertarian flair and independent streak, regardless of the blowback that brand has brought him.

But despite his jubilant, optimistic view, the loss still solidifies the opposite of what Massie was trying to prove: That Trump is still kingmaker in the Republican Party.

Massie’s campaign pitch focused on policy, including lowering the deficit, keeping government out of people’s lives, and not getting involved in foreign conflict — tenets that are traditional, conservative ideals. But in Kentucky’s 4th congressional district, a ruby-red bastion, nothing mattered more than Trump.

Asked why they were supporting Gallrein, some voters told MS NOW they weren’t happy with Massie’s representation. 

“I’m not pleased with how he votes,” Linda Arnold, 78, a retiree from Hebron, Ky., told MS NOW. “He doesn’t go along with what I think should be done.”

But asked which votes in particular, she didn’t have a specific answer. 

“Any time he totally goes against President Trump,” she said. 

Pressed on what Massie had done to sour her image of him, Arnold said, “I just don’t agree with how he votes sometimes.”

And asked how much Trump’s endorsement of Gallrein had played a role in her decision, she suggested it was a major factor. “I do go along, basically, with what most, if not all, of what President Trump has done and will be doing for our country,” she said.

Kim Doss, 55, another retiree from Hebron, told MS NOW she was backing Gallrein “because I feel like Thomas Massie’s just let the people down in Northern Kentucky.”

“Massie’s been on my list as far as someone not to vote for for quite a while, anyway, but definitely his endorsement did sway me there,” she said of Trump’s support for Gallrein.

Despite the crushing blow to Massie, he’s not ready to hang up his hat just yet.

Asked if he’d consider another run for political office, Massie told MS NOW: “We’re gonna think about that. We’ll talk to people.”

He said he “wouldn’t rule out” another campaign “at all,” and he suggested he was open to another bid for Congress, a run for governor or city council, even a presidential campaign.

He said he would now go back to his farm, spend the next week with his family, and “brainstorm” his future.

But asked if the end of this year, when his congressional term wraps up, would be the last we hear from him, Massie was clear-eyed.

“I doubt it,” he said.

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