Shelbyville, Ky. (AP) – Republican MP Thomas Massie from Kentucky has provided lend a hand from a key allied Senator Rand Paul, when the Maverick Congressman tries to ward off President Donald Trump’s threats to displace him from the congress.
Massie runs over writing in his toughest political struggle when a Super Pac attacked Trump from Trump Aides, and he is waiting for a potential challenge by someone who is supported by the President. Massie has raised the president’s anger against him in budget and foreign policy issues, betting that Kentuckian will accept his independent series despite Trump’s popularity in the Bluegrass state.
On Thursday, Massie and Paul completed a two -day momentum through his district, which has approved the Member of the congregation and shares Massies libertarian tendencies. Massie says that Paul’s confirmation offers “a counterweight to Donald Trump’s alleged confirmation for someone else”.
Massie was used to winning one -sided margins and was the first Republican incumbent in the Congress, who aimed for the defeat in the 2026 junction in 2026. It is about eight months from the GOP primary school, which takes place in May.
“Here is what is certain – if I will only give up, I will lose,” said Massie in an interview this week. “But the thing is, I never give up. And people know that.”
Anyone whoever wins the nominated Republican is preferred in the parliamentary elections in November in a district, which was recently represented two decades ago.
Both Massie and Paul have the call to present their party leaders in Washington, a energetic from which Paul brings them home with their voters.
“I think there is a difference between Kentucky and DC,” Paul told reporters on Wednesday. “Oh, Thomas Massie or Rand Paul are unpopular in DC.”
So far, in addition to Massie, a handful of candidates have submitted the Federal Election Commission for the campaign in Kentucky’s 4th district. This includes Republicans Niki Lee Ethington and Robert Wells as well as the Democrats Elizabeth Mason-Hill and Jesse Brewer.
Massie rocky relationship with Trump
Massies Up-and-Ttt-Trump relationship with Trump has won another jump this year. The MEP refused the massive tax and expenditure pace package, which Trump calls “beautiful”, but Massie says that public debt will augment economy. Massie Drew Trump’s anger that the president lacked the nuclear sites of Iran without the consent of the congress. And Massie was at the head of the efforts to force the public publication of case files on the sex trade probe to the delayed Jeffrey Epstein.
Trump triggered Massie on his social media platform this summer.
“Thomas Massie, the worst Republican congress member, and an almost guaranteed NO -voice every time, is a embarrassment for Kentucky. He is lethargic, ponderous and completely incorrect – a real loser!
Massie said that it was more at stake than his own future – the role of the congress to check the presidential powers and to give up his GOP members without fear of retaliation against Trump’s wishes.
“This race is a referendum about whether someone can be independent within the Republican party,” said Massie in the interview. “And many of my colleagues look at this race. They ask me every week how it works.”
He said Trump’s attacks on him should keep his Republican colleagues in line.
The fight for Bucks decreases
Massie has an impact on a forceful primary challenge and has increased collecting donations. This year he achieved an average of half a million dollars in donations per quarter and collected more in a quarter than usually in two years. In his own early advertisement, Massie said that he was being attacked because he “draw the Washington machine” and defiantly announced: “I didn’t fold myself, I fight. And I’m just starting.”
The MAS-trained Massie joined the congress at the end of 2012. It is a conservative district that extends through Nordkentucky, which includes a mixture of rural and suburban voters.
Massie’s reputation as a contrarians who is willing to bend GOP leader goes back to years. In 2020, while Trump’s first term, he tried to limit a Covid 19 aid package. Trump then insulted him as a “third rate grass stighter”, which was to be thrown out of the GOP. The smackdown was a bump on the street for massie, which drove to re -election. In 2022, Trump supported Massie and called him a “conservative warrior” and a “first -class defender of the constitution”.
“People remember that and they know that sometimes people come to his bad side and sometimes on his good side,” said Massie.
Massie unleashes a preventive attack
In the same interview, Massie found a way to attack a candidate who remains hypothetical at that time.
“If you try to recruit a candidate who is politically aware, politically ingenious and has political capital and the name ID, you are not ready to risk this for the long probability of beating me,” said Massie. “And when you find a candidate who has no political capital and has not paid attention, you are probably not a very good candidate.”
Todd McMurtry, who lost to Massie in the Republican primary school in 2020, describes him as a “obstructionist who has achieved almost nothing”. He said a forceful challenger could complete him, but it won’t be simple.
“I am sure who is running against him will be upset,” said McMurtry in an e -mail on Wednesday.
Trey Grayson, a former Foreign Minister of GOP Kentucky, said Massie’s willingness to oppose Trump’s priorities if they are conflict with his own principles in both directions. It will cost him with voters who want a stronger voice for Trump, but will appeal voters who appreciate his focus on the expenditure of the federal government and the greater transparency in the case of Epstein.
“I was always more optimistic about Massie’s re -election chances than most others,” said Grayson on Wednesday by e -mail. “The fact that no significant challenger has increased after months of recruitment has only reinforced my views of the re -election chances of Massie.”
