By the Staff of AFP
The most money ever spent on a congressional primary was funneled into a small Republican race in the fourth district in Kentucky, a largely rural part of the state that borders Ohio and Illinois. Despite its relatively minor significance nationally, the election somehow became “the most consequential Republican primary” for one country, reported Israeli daily newspaper Haaretz on May 19, the day of the election—all because one man, Thomas Massie, refused to bow to the plutocracy and the Israel lobby.
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On May 19, Massie lost the race by a sizable margin to Ed Gallrein, a former Navy SEAL who left the Republican Party in 2016 and became an independent after Donald Trump took the GOP presidential nomination that year. Voting records show Gallrein eventually switched back to Republican in 2021—five months after Trump left office.
Despite Gallrein’s notable defection, Trump still backed him, claiming on May 18:
Ed Gallrein is running against the worst Republican congressman in the history of our country. The guy’s a total disaster. You know who it is. Thomas Massie is the worst!
But was Massie really the worst? A deep dive into Massie’s voting history shows that the seven-term congressman had nearly a perfect score with conservative watchdog group Heritage Foundation. Over 14 years, Massie almost always voted with his party. He and his wife say they even voted for Trump three times.
The few times Massie did not vote straight down the Republican Party line was when it came to deficit spending, foreign aid giveaways, war, mass surveillance of Americans, and—most notably—the Jeffrey Epstein Transparency Act.
Massie defended his record, telling reporters on Nov. 5, 2025:
I vote with Republican leadership 91% of the time. The other 9% of the time they’re protecting pedophiles, prioritizing corporations over farmers, spending us into oblivion, or starting another war.
In his concession speech, Massie joked to his supporters:
I would have come out sooner, but I had to call my opponent to concede, and it took a while to find him in Tel Aviv.
There was truth in Massie’s humor, as one of the largest donors to the race was notorious Israel-firster Miriam Adelson, who spent millions to unseat the conservative congressman. Two other Jewish billionaires—Paul Singer and John Paulson—also threw millions at the race, bringing total donations from these three wealthy elites alone to over $25 million.
The day before the election, on May 18, CBS News interviewed Massie on his farm. He didn’t hold back:
They tried to buy my vote for 14 years, and it was never for sale. Now they’re trying to buy a seat here in Kentucky. I’m talking about the Israeli lobby, AIPAC, Republican Jewish Coalition, Miriam Adelson, Paul Singer, and John Paulson. These are the groups that have given 95% of the money to my opponent because they’re mad at me over foreign policy.
With Israel, its completely one way. And they drag us into wars. They’ve convinced us that Iran is just days away from a nuclear weapon, and they’re perpetually that way. This is not our war. A lot of Republicans would be aghast to know that we’re giving $3.8 billion a year, every year, to a country that funds public abortions.
One of the most principled, truly America-first conservative congressmen in Washington refused to increase the national debt, send American kids into another war for Israel, and protect pedophiles, thus the plutocracy destroyed him.
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