President Trump claimed his latest political scalp Tuesday night after Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) lost his hotly contested House primary to the commander-in-chief’s hand-picked challenger, Ed Gallrein.
Gallrein, a Trump-backed farmer and retired Navy SEAL, triumphed over Massie by about 10 percentage points in the Bluegrass State’s Fourth Congressional District race, which will go down as the most expensive primary race in US history, with more than $32 million spent on political ads.
“For the same reason I entered as a Navy SEAL officer in 1983, because I had the audacity to think I could make a difference,” Gallrein said in a speech after winning. “I will serve this district, my party and my nation with that same audacity.”
Trump repeatedly urged his supporters to oust Massie, an MIT-educated, seven-term congressman, after he broke with the president on key votes and led the charge to release the files on the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Massie’s defeat came on the heels of Trump’s successful intervention in the Louisiana Republican Senate primary against Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), who had voted to convict the 45th president following his impeachment for incitement of insurrection following the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot.
The president also successfully exacted revenge earlier this month against a slate of incumbent Republican state senators in Indiana, who torpedoed a redistricting push in the Hoosier state.
And Trump has already signaled that Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.), who had been stumping for Massie in Kentucky, could be next on his target list by the time the Centennial State holds its primary June 30.
Rep. Andy Barr (R-Ky.), another Trump-endorsed candidate, emerged victorious in the race to replace retiring Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.).
Barr secured more than 60% of the vote, topping former Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron, who came in second with 30% support.
In the Georgia governor’s race, another notorious Trump foe came in well-behind the top vote-getters in his bid for higher office.
Georgia Secretary Brad Raffensperger, who infamously defied the president when asked to “find” votes in the Peach State after the 2020 election, received about 14.5% of the vote in the GOP gubernatorial primary and failed to make the runoff election.
Lt. Gov. Burt Jones and billionaire health care executive Rick Jackson advanced to next month’s runoff and the winner is expected to face former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms on the November ballot.
Trump has endorsed Jones in the race to replace term-limited GOP Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp.
Polls closed in Tuesday’s primary contests just hours after the president made a long-awaited endorsement in the Texas Senate battle between state Attorney General Ken Paxton and Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas).
In a massive blow to the incumbent, Trump gave Paxton his stamp of approval ahead of next week’s runoff – calling the firebrand AG a “winner” and “true MAGA warrior.”
Cornyn had been trailing Paxton in most polling as the GOP braces for a slugfest against state Rep. James Talarico (D-50th Dist.) in the general election.
