Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) has not exactly endeared himself to House colleagues since his arrival in Washington.
During the height of the pandemic, he famously forced lawmakers to fly to Washington to keep him from derailing a $2 trillion COVID-19 relief bill. Earlier this month, Republicans fumed as he joined a failed attempt to oust Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA).
However, Republican voters in Kentucky’s 4th District made clear on Tuesday night they do not share the same contempt for Massie. Seventy-six percent opted to give him what will be his seventh full term. He does not face a Democratic challenger in the fall.
His victory illustrates a common theme in GOP politics. Opposing leadership may cause drama and even gridlock in Washington, but it pays dividends back home.
Massie joins Republicans, particularly from the House Freedom Caucus, who have built anti-establishment reputations by railing against what they see as capitulation to the Democrats.
“I think people see him as very sincere,” Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), his close home-state ally, told the Washington Examiner.
“If you look at congressional races, it’s based on being there, knowing the people, representing their views,” he added. “This is a very conservative part of Kentucky.”
Massie’s antagonism toward leadership is based, in part, on traditional GOP concerns about federal spending. He walks around the Capitol with a homemade national debt counter on his lapel.
But it’s also due to his libertarian bent. Massie considered Johnson’s decision to oppose warrants for U.S. data captured in the government’s foreign surveillance program a betrayal, while he also raged at the speaker for giving Ukraine aid a vote on the House floor.
The views are not so uncommon in the age of Donald Trump. The former president lumps the spy program in with efforts to surveil his 2016 campaign, while Trump brags that he could end the conflict with Russia in a single day.
But Massie’s ideological purity, especially on foreign policy, predates the populist shift in the GOP seen under Trump. He is often the lone, or among the only, GOP “no” votes on resolutions generally regarded as uncontroversial.
In April, he was the sole Republican to oppose a resolution condemning Iran’s missile attack on Israel.
Massie did not face a serious challenger in his reelection bid. The two other candidates running received around 12% of the vote apiece.
That does not mean his independent streak is without risks, however.
Massie has repeatedly antagonized Trump, who, as president, called him a “third-rate grandstander” for his decision to force a vote on COVID-19 relief.
He thumbed his nose at the former president’s White House run last year, endorsing Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) instead, and more recently ignored Trump’s pleas not to oust Johnson.
“One thing I’ll give Tom Massie — he’s a consistent, convicted libertarian-leaning Republican. He’s not head of the fan club,” said Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-ND), who was elected to the House around the same time as Massie in 2012.
Trump has shown a willingness to meddle in Republican primaries. In March, he encouraged a primary challenge against Rep. Laurel Lee (R-FL), another Republican to endorse DeSantis in the presidential race.
However, Massie has brushed off concerns that his outspokenness will cost him and even rushed to the defense of Lee over what he said were “ridiculous bullying tactics.”
Trump stayed out of Massie’s primary, but his support could be valuable if Massie wants to run for the seat of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) when he retires in 2026.
The bigger concern, at least judging by the primary, could be the readiness of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, the pro-Israel lobbying group, to oppose any aspirations he may have for higher office.
Its affiliated super PAC spent hundreds of thousands of dollars in ads highlighting his opposition to a raft of pro-Israel measures, including an antisemitism bill he voted against on free speech grounds and, more importantly, aid to the Jewish state.
The spending did not tilt the outcome of the primary. However, AIPAC has framed the spending as part of a larger effort to counter a possible Senate run by Massie.
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Not every House rabble-rouser has gotten off the hook this election cycle. Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) is among those facing a primary challenge backed by Kevin McCarthy after eight Republicans booted him from the speakership in October. However, unseating Gaetz, too, will be difficult.
He won 70% of the Republican vote in his 2022 primary.
