Thomas Massie believes his “biggest crime” cost him his election, but expects it to cost Republicans more in November.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. — U.S. Rep. Thomas Massie thinks he’s figured out how he lost last week’s primary, and his seat in Congress.
Republican Ed Gallrein, who President Donald Trump endorsed, won the election by nearly 10 points over Massie.
A voter in Oldham County told WHAS11 he couldn’t support Massie because the congressman was seen as a “RINO,” or a Republican in name only.
Massie responded to that criticism on Sunday in an interview on NBC’s Meet the Press, saying there were “a lot of misinformed, uninformed voters.”
“My daughter, who lives outside of my congressional district, she heard somebody in the voting booth next to her trying to find my opponent’s name on the ballot because he didn’t even know I wasn’t his congressman,” he continued. “That’s how much they’ve bamboozled the people here in Kentucky.”
He said an opposition campaign ad that used AI-generated video to show him entering a hotel room with two Democratic lawmakers was “very effective on the Boomers.”
“That’s only going to work for a little while longer,” he said. “The Boomers are going to leave this country to the Gen X, and the Gen Z, and the Gen Y, and the Millennials – and those folks are the ones that I won overwhelmingly, that makes me hopeful for this country.”
Massie concerned for GOP in November
Trump sought to replace Massie for his opposition to key policies, including the “Big, Beautiful Bill” and the war in Iran.
Massie was also an architect of the legislation that forced the Justice Department to release its files in the Jeffrey Epstein investigation.
He believes that’s what cost him the election, calling it “the biggest crime I committed against the swamp.”
“[I showed] the American people that somebody on the Right could join somebody on the Left and get something done,” Massie said. “That’s when they decided I had to be taken out, that I was becoming effective, so they wanted to eliminate me.”
While Massie says it was a fight worth losing his seat over, he believes it won’t be worth it for the GOP in the upcoming November election.
“[The party] disenfranchised a large portion of that constituency that Trump assembled to get us in the White House, in the Senate majority and in the House majority,” he explained.
The congressman argued some voters who support “Make America Healthy Again” and DOGE cuts, as well as fiscal hawk and anti-war Republicans have been “alienated.”
“I’m worried that in November this is going to cost the party a lot,” he said, adding that America is “operating like a Roman empire” by overextending itself overseas and overspending taxpayer dollars.
“And the gasoline, and rent, and groceries are so high that people can’t afford it,” Massie continued. “I do think it’s dangerous to indulge in these things like a gold-plated ballroom in Washington D.C. while Americans are suffering.”
On Monday, Massie filed a statement of candidacy for his congressional seat when it’s up for reelection in 2028. But it doesn’t necessarily mean he’s running for Congress again.
While he hasn’t indicated what’s next for his political future, Massie’s not ruling anything out.
“I’ve spent the last five days on my farm with my grandkids and my cattle and my peach trees, and it’s a pretty nice life. I don’t know if I want to screw that up again,” he said Sunday. “But I think I will stay engaged in some way or shape, maybe it’s from the outside. I’ve been exposing what’s going on in Washington D.C. for year and I will keep doing it.”
