Trump attacks Massie as Ed Gallrein leads 48% to 43%

Donald Trump attacked Thomas Massie on Truth Social as ed gallrein, his endorsed challenger, moved into Tuesday’s Kentucky Republican primary with a Quantus Insights poll showing Gallrein ahead 48% to 43%. Massie said Trump and his allies were desperate, while the polling left him trying to close an 8-point gap among Republican voters.

Trump's Truth Social attack

Trump wrote that Massie was the “worst and most unreliable Republican Congressman in the history of our Country” and told Kentucky voters to “vote the bum out on Tuesday.” The post ran for an eight-hour period on Sunday, putting the president’s backing behind Gallrein in the final stretch before the vote.

Massie, a Kentucky congressman, has broken with Trump before. He voted against Trump’s signature tax and spending cuts bill, helped force the Justice Department to release the Jeffrey Epstein files and pushed for congressional oversight of military actions in Venezuela and Iran.

Gallrein's Kentucky numbers

Last week’s Quantus Insights poll gave Gallrein, a farmer and retired US Navy Seal, 48% support to Massie’s 43%, with 8% undecided. That margin leaves both campaigns focused on uncommitted Republicans, not just the voters already aligned with one side.

Massie argued on ABC News This Week that he was “the only one they haven’t been able to bully” and said, “I’m ahead in the polls, and they’re desperate … That’s why the president’s losing sleep and tweeting about this.” He also said on that he had support from anti-abortion and gun rights groups in Kentucky and had received millions of dollars from grassroots voters.

Cassidy runoff pressure

The Kentucky contest comes as Republicans have watched other Trump-backed fights break their way elsewhere. Bill Cassidy was ousted in a Republican primary on Saturday after voting to convict Trump in the 2021 impeachment trial, and Julia Letlow and John Fleming advanced to a runoff on 27 June after surpassing him.

Lindsey Graham said on NBC News’s Meet the Press that “Bill Cassidy lost because he tried to destroy Trump, Massie is going to lose because he tried to destroy the agenda.” For Kentucky voters, the immediate question is whether Trump’s intervention turns a close race into a loss for Massie, or whether his challenger still has to prove the poll can become actual votes.