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by MARK POWELL
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From Oregon to Pennsylvania, voters in six states went to the polls on Tuesday (May 19, 2026). But the country’s attention was fixated on just one race: the Commonwealth of Kentucky, where a 14-year congressional career skidded to an abrupt halt.
Thomas Massie, who has relished being a political thorn in president Donald Trump’s side throughout his second term, was soundly defeated for renomination. How soundly, you may ask? With all precincts reporting, Massie received just 47,539 votes (or 45.1% of all ballots cast). He’ll be replaced on the Republican ballot by Ed Gallrein, a former Navy SEAL officer, dairy farmer, and Trump-endorsed candidate who got 57,822 votes (54.9%).
The win didn’t come cheap, though. With a more than $32.6 million price tag, it was one of the most expensive House primary campaigns ever – with each vote “costing” an estimated $309.
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While Gallrein was the victorious candidate, it can be argued Trump was the night’s big winner. Fresh off his anointed challenger dispatching incumbent (and Trump impeachment backer) U.S. senator Bill Cassidy for renomination in Saturday’s Louisiana GOP primary, the president focused his firepower on his chief intra-party nemesis.
Self-branded as a libertarian’s libertarian, Massie spent as much time fighting Trump (and House Speaker Mike Johnson) as he did battling Democrats – although he voted more than 90% of the time with the GOP. He repeatedly voted “no” on the White House’s marquee legislation, however, including Trump’s beloved One Big Beautiful Bill.
He was also the only House GOP member to vote against this year’s Republican budget resolution. Not the kind of stuff that endears you to the guy who lives at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
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However, it should also be noted that Massie was among the final handful of Washington Republicans consistently warning about out-of-control spending – and was willing to back it up with his vote. For decades, the issue of the ever-mushrooming federal debt was the sole property of the GOP. These days, most Capitol Hill Republicans are more likely to say, “federal debt? What debt? Hey, let’s talk about illegal immigration instead!”
But it went beyond Massie’s fiscal record. He sparred with Trump bigly—and very publicly—last winter over releasing the Epstein files. There was also the messy matter that came out last week about Massie allegedly offering hush money to a former girlfriend, a claim he stoutly denied.
In the end, it didn’t matter. Massie may have broken with Trump, but most Republicans in Kentucky’s Fourth Congressional District haven’t. When push came to shove, they gave the representative who had held the job since 2012 the boot.
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“Politics is a team sport,” a Republican political strategist in Washington shared with us. “With a wafer-thin House majority, Republicans can’t afford any members wandering off and going rogue. Not only did Massie let down the team—repeatedly, I might add—but he even thumbed his nose at the coach. Well, on Tuesday, the coach had the last laugh.”
Tuesday was also a bad night for another Trump adversary. Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensbarger, who had locked horns with Trump in the aftermath of the 2020 presidential election, saw his gubernatorial dreams go up in flames. He didn’t even make the runoff for the Republican nomination, finishing a distant third. (Trump backed Lt. Gov. Burt Jones topped the GOP pack but fell short of the 50%-plus-1 threshold necessary to clinch the nomination outright.)
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Also Tuesday, Trump officially endorsed state Attorney General Ken Paxton in his Texas runoff next week. He’s locked in a political death struggle with four-term incumbent U.S. Sen. John Cornyn in a classic Establishment/Traditional GOP vs. Populist/Insurgent showdown.
All of which brings us to South Carolina’s looming June 9, 2026 GOP gubernatorial primary, which, according to recent polling, is still anyone’s to win. With Trump’s influence over the Republican base seemingly unassailable at the moment—especially here in the South—behind-the-scenes efforts to secure his endorsement are revving into overdrive. Conversely, efforts to block and tackle and keep that endorsement from going to a rival will be equally intense. (It’s a pity all that maneuvering is done in private, because THAT would be quite a show!)
Can one of the six GOP hopefuls secure Trump’s coveted (in Republican circles, anyway) seal of approval? Can the others persuade him to stay out of South Carolina? Will there be an 11th-hour Pearl Harbor-level political bombshell akin to the one then-lieutenant governor Henry McMaster delivered when he endorsed then-candidate Trump for president in 2016? If a campaign does manage to lock down Trump’s blessing, would it be enough to sway the sea of undecideds?
At the very least, the coming 20 days could well be very, very interesting.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR…
J. Mark Powell is an award-winning former TV journalist, government communications veteran, and a political consultant. He is also an author and an avid Civil War enthusiast. Got a tip or a story idea for Mark? Email him at mark@fitsnews.com.
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