Representative Thomas Massie, a Kentucky Republican whose libertarian leanings and independent streak have made him a thorn in President Trump’s side, is facing a fierce challenge from a Trump-backed rival on Tuesday. Mr. Trump has made him one of his top targets for defeat this primary season and his race has drawn widespread attention.
Here are five things to know about Mr. Massie, 55.
1. He has broken with Mr. Trump over the war with Iran. From its first hours, Mr. Massie has been an outspoken of critic of the war, accusing the president of violating the Constitution by striking Iran without congressional approval. (The president has consistently defended the war, saying Iran posed a severe national security threat.) Mr. Massie says the war contradicts Mr. Trump’s 2024 campaign platform and has come at a steep economic cost. By early March, he had joined one other House Republican in supporting a doomed measure to force the president to go to Congress for authorization for the war. “I feel confident that I’ve got the constitutional position right,” Mr. Massie said in an interview a week into the war. “And I’m hopeful that the politics will follow later.”
2. He faces frequent criticism from Mr. Trump and considers himself a test case in the G.O.P. Mr. Trump has called him a “loser,” and wrote on social media on Sunday: “We can’t live with this troublemaker for another two years.” Mr. Massie has acknowledged that his position on the war has “created a headwind” for him as he battles the president’s favored candidate, Ed Gallrein, a farmer. In an era when Mr. Trump has sought to unseat a number of Republicans he deems insufficiently loyal, Mr. Massie has expressed pride in bucking the president. He predicts that if he wins his primary, more Republicans will be willing to go against the grain, and he has joked about writing a song titled, “I’ll still win, but if I lose, it was worth it.”
3. He has also been at odds with Mr. Trump over the Epstein files. Mr. Massie led the charge among congressional Republicans to release files related to the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. The push prevailed, over the objections of the White House. “If they’re bankrupting the country or covering up for pedophiles or starting another war or spying on you without a warrant, I’m sorry, that’s when I deviate from the party,” Mr. Massie said in an interview.
4. He has overcome a primary challenge before. Mr. Massie has been jawing at Mr. Trump for years. Mr. Trump also opposed the congressman in his primary in 2020 — decrying him as a “third rate Grandstander” — after Mr. Massie opposed a Covid-19 relief bill. That time around, Mr. Massie beat his primary opponent by more than 60 percentage points. “I got the Trump antibodies in that election,” Mr. Massie said in early March. “But they may be waning.”
5. He lives on an off-the-grid farm. When he’s away from Washington, Mr. Massie, who was educated at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, spends his days in a solar-powered house on a remote farm in Garrison, Ky. (Population: 552.) It’s in a region of rolling hills dotted with grazing horses. Now in his seventh term, Mr. Massie has a special pull on a deeply conservative area, local Republicans say. Each time he has been up for re-election, he has won with at least 60 percent of the vote in the general election. And Mr. Massie has registered 30 patents for various inventions.
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