Voters in six states pick primary nominees Tuesday, with Kentucky's 4th Congressional District the marquee contest as President Trump tries to end the 14-year House career of Rep. Thomas Massie, the libertarian-leaning Republican who has voted against the president's signature spending package, opposed the Iran war and pushed for the release of files tied to Jeffrey Epstein.
The race is now the most expensive U.S. House primary on record. Nearly $33 million has been spent on ads, according to ad-tracking firm AdImpact, much of it from super PACs backing Trump-endorsed challenger Ed Gallrein, a former Navy SEAL, and from pro-Israel groups targeting Massie. The outcome will signal whether Trump can keep extending a purge of GOP dissenters that on Saturday cost Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana renomination.
Hegseth on the trail
Trump has endorsed roughly three dozen federal and gubernatorial candidates across Alabama, Georgia, Idaho, Kentucky, Oregon and Pennsylvania, NBC News reported, including Lt. Gov. Burt Jones in Georgia's crowded GOP gubernatorial primary. But the president's attention has fixed on Vanceburg, Kentucky, where Massie lives. In a video posted from the Oval Office on Monday, Trump called Massie "the worst congressman in the history of our country."
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth campaigned with Gallrein on Monday at a hotel ballroom near the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky Airport, accusing Massie of "constant obstruction." The visit broke with the longstanding practice of sitting Cabinet officials avoiding partisan campaign events. Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell said in a statement that "Secretary Hegseth is attending this event in his personal capacity. No taxpayer dollars will be used to facilitate his visit," and that lawyers had cleared the trip under the Hatch Act.
Massie's defense
Massie, in an interview with CBS News on Monday in Vanceburg, called Hegseth's appearance a sign of panic. "He knows I'm tough to beat," Massie said of the president. "He's literally losing sleep over this race, because he's in with both feet."
Massie has framed the primary as "a referendum on whether the Israeli lobby can buy a seat in Congress," pointing to spending by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, the Republican Jewish Coalition and donors including Miriam Adelson and Paul Singer. Massie estimated Trump's endorsement of Gallrein cut his support from 80 percent to 60 percent, and that pro-Israel spending pushed the race to roughly 50-50.
The counterargument
Trump and his allies cast the campaign as routine party discipline, not a purge. The president has labeled Massie "a disloyal, ungracious, and sanctimonious FOOL" for opposing GOP legislative priorities. Recent polling gives Gallrein a slight edge, CNBC reported. Republican strategist John Feehery, a former aide to House Speaker Dennis Hastert, predicted Massie would fall short. "At the end of the day if you piss off Trump he's going to go after you," Feehery said. A second Republican operative, granted anonymity by CNBC, conceded Massie remained "well-liked" in the district with "his own little base of Massie-like people who respect him for sticking to his guns," but argued the spending gap would prove decisive.
Polls close Tuesday across all six states. If no candidate clears a majority in Georgia's GOP gubernatorial primary or in Alabama's Senate race, the top two finishers advance to June 16 runoffs.