Rep. Thomas Massie shook off reelection concerns in an interview with Fox’s “America’s Newsroom” on Tuesday, the day of his contentious GOP primary.
When the Kentucky Republican was asked if he met his match against a president campaigning against him, he said, “No, I’m not running against President Trump.”
“Most of the people voting for me support President Trump like I do,” he added, citing support from pro-lifers, pro-Second Amendment groups and the local leaders, state representatives and members of Congress backing his reelection bid.
Mr. Trump has taken an outsized approach in trying to boot Mr. Massie from Congress, labeling him “the Worst ’Republican’ Congressman in History” in a Monday Truth Social post.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth jumped into the battle, campaigning “as a private citizen” for Ed Gallrein, the former Navy SEAL aiming to unseat Mr. Massie.
Mr. Massie, who has become one of the most prominent libertarian and noninterventionist voices in the GOP, has voiced his opposition to military conflicts abroad — specifically concerning Iran — creating significant friction in his party.
He said all three of his Monday campaign events had more attendees than Mr. Hegseth’s.
“That tells you where the polling’s at,” Mr. Massie said. “They’re panicked because the president’s done 11 posts about this race in the last 72 hours, and they sent the secretary of war. Their polling shows the same thing as mine. We’re probably going to pull this off.”
When the seven-term representative was asked how to defend voting against the GOP’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act, Mr. Massie said, “That’s the problem in D.C. They put everything in one giant bill.
“What they’re doing is they’re taking these big giant bills, which everybody hates back in America, and they’re trying to blame you for anything that’s in there. But guess what? I’m the only guy up there that didn’t vote to fund Planned Parenthood this last time. I’m the only guy up there that didn’t vote to fund that immigrant welfare fraud. They put the money back in. They’ve actually taken all the [Department of Government Efficiency] cuts out, but I’m the only one that’s sticking with DOGE and sticking with the people back home.”
He added that “if you ever vote against it, they can say that you voted against everything. The reality is, I voted for the Save Act when it comes up individually. I voted for border control, DHS, the wall, all of the things that the president wants.”
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