Massie shrugs off Cassidy defeat as Trump intensifies attacks
Massie called Trump’s attacks “desperate” as Cassidy’s Louisiana defeat sharpened the question of how far GOP dissent can still go before it is punished.
Thomas Massie brushed off Donald Trump’s latest attacks even as Bill Cassidy’s defeat in Louisiana gave the president a fresh example of how hard he can hit Republicans who break with him. The Kentucky congressman is now trying to hold off a Trump-backed challenge from former Navy SEAL Ed Gallrein in the 4th Congressional District.
Cassidy’s loss on May 16 deepened the stakes for Massie. In Louisiana’s closed partisan primary and runoff system, Cassidy finished third with about 25 percent of the vote and failed to make the runoff, while Trump-backed Rep. Julia Letlow and state Treasurer John Fleming advanced. For Republicans who have crossed Trump, the result landed as a warning that presidential backing can still decide who survives a primary and who does not.
Massie, by contrast, is betting that Trump’s pressure campaign has a ceiling. Reuters reported Sunday that Massie called the president’s attacks on him “desperate” ahead of Tuesday’s Kentucky primary. Trump has spent weeks going after Massie over his repeated breaks with him in Congress, including on major legislation, the Iran war and Massie’s push to release files related to Jeffrey Epstein.
The race has tightened enough to give Trump’s allies real hope. A Quantus Insights poll released May 13 showed Gallrein leading Massie 53 percent to 45 percent among likely GOP primary voters, with a 3.3 percent margin of error. The poll surveyed 908 likely Republican voters on May 11 and May 12, underscoring how narrow the battlefield has become in a district where Massie has long cultivated an independent brand.
Trump widened the fight further by threatening to pull his endorsement of Rep. Lauren Boebert after she campaigned with Massie in Kentucky, a move that showed the pressure is not limited to one race. Trump also called for GOP voters to oust “bum” Thomas Massie, making the Kentucky contest a test of whether Republican primaries now punish independence uniformly or only in certain states and factions.
That question now hangs over Massie and over Republicans who have challenged Trump’s power. Politico described Cassidy’s defeat as a massive warning sign for any GOP member who has provoked the president’s wrath. Kentucky will show whether that warning applies everywhere, or whether some incumbents can still survive by betting that Trump’s reach is strong, but not absolute.
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