{"id":242,"date":"2026-06-08T05:38:58","date_gmt":"2026-06-08T05:38:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/modernhomejournals.com\/?p=242"},"modified":"2026-06-08T05:38:58","modified_gmt":"2026-06-08T05:38:58","slug":"out-of-state-money-helped-take-down-thomas-massie","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/modernhomejournals.com\/?p=242","title":{"rendered":"Out-of-State Money Helped Take Down Thomas Massie"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<div>\n<p>Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky lost his Republican primary Tuesday night. He can blame, in part, donors with no discernible ties to his district.<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/modernhomejournals.com\/?p=240\">Pratt Splat?<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u201cWelcome to the most expensive Congressional primary ever in the 250-year history of this country,\u201d Massie said in his concession speech. \u201cIt started nine months ago \u2014 they didn\u2019t even have a candidate and they decided they wanted to take me out.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The race between Massie and Ed Gallrein, his challenger backed by President Donald Trump, topped even some general elections in spending. It was funded primarily by donors and moneyed interests from outside the Kentucky district.<\/p>\n<p>The vast majority of named individual contributions made to either campaign came from donors outside the district, a NOTUS analysis of Federal Election Commission data found. For both candidates, less than 6% of named individual contributions came from zip codes in the district, though Massie had more contributions from people within his district and in the state.<\/p>\n<p>Millions of dollars were raised and spent in hopes of persuading a constituency of less than a million who to vote for.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhenever we have a competitive race, the money floods in,\u201d said Stephen Voss, a professor at the University of Kentucky and expert in Kentucky politics. \u201cWhat\u2019s unique about this race is that the forces pumping money into Kentucky aren\u2019t the usual ones. Usually it\u2019s sort of standard left-right attempts to take down our Republican incumbent, or in the case of Gov. [Andy] Beshear, take down the Democratic incumbent. This one, we\u2019re sucking in money for different reasons.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The reasons: Massie\u2019s national profile, his propensity for defying Trump, and his anti-establishment position on issues like Israel.<\/p>\n<div>\n<div><iframe aria-label=\"Small multiple donut chart\" data-external=\"1\" frameborder=\"0\" height=\"507\" id=\"datawrapper-chart-DjCJY\" scrolling=\"no\" src=\"https:\/\/datawrapper.dwcdn.net\/DjCJY\/3\/\" style=\"width: 0; min-width: 100% !important; border: none;\" title=\"Itemized Individual Donor Geography, Percent of Dollars\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>The FEC data referenced in some of this reporting was parsed and analyzed using Python by Claude, with results verified by NOTUS.<\/p>\n<p>Kentucky\u2019s 4th District has seen <span><u>$32.6M in ad spending, according to AdImpact.<\/u><\/span> The two largest portions of that figure are for ads supporting Gallrein and ads attacking Massie.<\/p>\n<p><span><u>Pro-Israel groups<\/u><\/span> including the American Israel Public Affairs Committee and the Republican Jewish Coalition played an outsized role in seeking to unseat Massie for his position on the war in Iran and broader politics concerning Israel. They poured millions of dollars into Gallrein\u2019s campaigns and attack ads against Massie.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHow did this race become the most expensive race in the history of Congress, for a primary? It\u2019s because three billionaires from outside of Kentucky have funneled millions of dollars here to try to buy a seat,\u201d <span><u>Massie said on ABC News\u2019 \u201cThis Week.\u201d<\/u><\/span> \u201cAnd so, it\u2019s not just the president\u2019s tweets. I can sustain those without a problem. It\u2019s because Miriam Adelson and Paul Singer have dumped money in here.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Gallrein also benefited from money though Trump\u2019s base of donor support. MAGA KY, a super PAC <span><u>started by top Trump strategists<\/u><\/span> and <span><u>funded by<\/u><\/span> Singer and John Paulson raised millions to support the Navy SEAL officer.<\/p>\n<p>Some of the funds did not seem to come from Trump loyalists. <span><u>The Daily Caller reported<\/u><\/span> that the majority of candidates who contributed the maximum individual contributions to Gallrein had contributed to Democrats before. Some of these donors have also contributed to AIPAC, according to a review of Gallrein\u2019s FEC reports.<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/modernhomejournals.com\/?p=238\">Trump Storms Out of Interview Over Election Integrity Claims<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Massie\u2019s campaign received a boost from billionaire dollars too. <span><u>Jeff Yass donated millions last year to a PAC that supports Massie<\/u><\/span>. Massie\u2019s fundraising has also been buoyed by libertarian groups and allies in Congress, like Kentucky <span><u>Sen. Rand Paul<\/u><\/span> and <span><u>Rep. Jim Jordan<\/u><\/span>.<\/p>\n<p>In the end, Massie was defeated by Gallrein \u2014 a first-time politician hand-selected by Trump to thwart Massie, who has built a reputation for bucking both the president and the broader Republican conference. Gallrein will face Democrat Melissa Claire Strange in November.<\/p>\n<p>Gallrein\u2019s win underscores the president\u2019s continued grip on the Republican Party nationwide \u2014 Trump vowed to defeat Massie, and spent considerable resources to bring about that outcome. But it also points to the influence of money on elections.<\/p>\n<p>Michael Beckel, director of money in politics reform at Issue One, a nonprofit group that advocates for reducing the influence of money in politics, said the race drew donations in part because \u201cTrump and his allies want to make an example out of\u201d Massie.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBy unleashing massive spending here, the president and his allies are showing they are prepared to go after any member of Congress who is deemed disloyal,\u201d he said in an email.<\/p>\n<p>Massie\u2019s campaign primarily raised money through donations that were smaller, but more numerous, than Gallrein\u2019s campaign. Across roughly 3,350 unique named individual donations between January and April, Massie\u2019s median contribution was $250. For Gallrein, 1,164 donors contributed an average of $1,000. The figures underscore Massie\u2019s broad base of grassroots donor support that ultimately wasn\u2019t enough to carry him across the finish line.<\/p>\n<p>Not reflected in those figures are itemized individual contributions with no donor name recorded, which total $81,000 and $151,000 for Massie and Gallrein, respectively. Both also raised money from unitemized individual contributions \u2014 none more than $200, but collectively contributing $1,034,545 to Massie\u2019s campaign and $184,739 to Gallrein\u2019s between January and April.<\/p>\n<div>\n<div><iframe aria-label=\"Grouped Bars\" data-external=\"1\" frameborder=\"0\" height=\"\" id=\"datawrapper-chart-XTcDU\" scrolling=\"no\" src=\"https:\/\/datawrapper.dwcdn.net\/XTcDU\/2\/\" style=\"width: 0; min-width: 100% !important; border: none;\" title=\"Distribution of Itemized Individual Donations\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>For both candidates, a significant amount of campaign contributions from outside Kentucky originated from states including California, Texas and Florida.<\/p>\n<p>Neither campaign responded to a request for comment.<\/p>\n<p>Elections get more expensive every cycle. And with more outside spending often comes more misinformation, Voss said.<\/p>\n<p>Many of the ads in the race featured falsehoods or misleading information, like one advertisement featuring Massie cavorting with Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Ilhan Omar that was made with artificial intelligence.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cUsually when you have ads funded by outside groups, especially when it\u2019s funded by money that\u2019s harder to trace, the ads tend to be more provocative and less respectful of the truth than back in the day,\u201d Voss said, \u201cwhen it was political parties and campaigns that did most of the advertising, and people who had to worry about their long-term reputation. A fly-by-night campaign group doesn\u2019t have to worry about its reputation.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/modernhomejournals.com\/?p=237\">Texas Will Soon Have a Vacancy in a Crucial Election Role<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Kentucky house primary was hugely nationalized, with money pouring in from across the country.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":241,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-242","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-2026-election"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Out-of-State Money Helped Take Down Thomas Massie - Modern Home Journals<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/modernhomejournals.com\/?p=242\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Out-of-State Money Helped Take Down Thomas Massie - Modern Home Journals\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Kentucky house primary was hugely nationalized, with money pouring in from across the country.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/modernhomejournals.com\/?p=242\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Modern Home Journals\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-06-08T05:38:58+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/modernhomejournals.com\\\/?p=242#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/modernhomejournals.com\\\/?p=242\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/modernhomejournals.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/533de239efc09a2ab59959cc1bff86d0\"},\"headline\":\"Out-of-State Money Helped Take Down Thomas Massie\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-06-08T05:38:58+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/modernhomejournals.com\\\/?p=242\"},\"wordCount\":1042,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/modernhomejournals.com\\\/?p=242#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/modernhomejournals.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/06\\\/ecce5ed938ae7ac1f34186f9fb64a036-scaled.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"2026 Election\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/modernhomejournals.com\\\/?p=242#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/modernhomejournals.com\\\/?p=242\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/modernhomejournals.com\\\/?p=242\",\"name\":\"Out-of-State Money Helped Take Down Thomas Massie - Modern Home Journals\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/modernhomejournals.com\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/modernhomejournals.com\\\/?p=242#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/modernhomejournals.com\\\/?p=242#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/modernhomejournals.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/06\\\/ecce5ed938ae7ac1f34186f9fb64a036-scaled.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-06-08T05:38:58+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/modernhomejournals.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/533de239efc09a2ab59959cc1bff86d0\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/modernhomejournals.com\\\/?p=242#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/modernhomejournals.com\\\/?p=242\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/modernhomejournals.com\\\/?p=242#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/modernhomejournals.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/06\\\/ecce5ed938ae7ac1f34186f9fb64a036-scaled.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/modernhomejournals.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/06\\\/ecce5ed938ae7ac1f34186f9fb64a036-scaled.jpg\",\"width\":2560,\"height\":1707,\"caption\":\"Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) departs a vote at the U.S. Capitol Sept. 2, 2025. 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Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) departs a vote at the U.S. Capitol Sept. 2, 2025. 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