Trump ousts Massie, and other takeaways from Tuesday’s primary elections

By Eric Bradner, Arit John, CNN

(CNN) — President Donald Trump’s retribution campaign steamrolled another Republican rival on Tuesday, with a Trump-backed challenger ousting one of the president’s leading intra-party antagonists, Rep. Thomas Massie, in a Kentucky primary.

Former Navy SEAL Ed Gallrein’s win over Massie continued a May political payback tour that has seen Trump take down five Indiana state senators who voted against his redistricting push two weeks ago, and two-term Louisiana Sen. Bill Cassidy, who voted to impeach Trump in 2021, on Saturday.

It was one of two key races on Kentucky’s primary ballots in which Trump demonstrated his lasting influence with Republican voters.

Kentucky’s polls were the first to close on a day in which Alabama, Georgia, Idaho, Oregon and Pennsylvania were also holding primaries.

Here are takeaways from Tuesday’s contests:

Trump topples ‘terrible’ Massie

Trump has vowed retribution against a number of Republicans over slights real and perceived. But years of battles over spending, the Jeffrey Epstein files, the United States’ support for Israel and more led the president to take Massie’s primary particularly personally.

“Thomas Massie is a terrible congressman. He’s been a terrible congressman from day one. Dealing with him is just horrible. I don’t think he’s a Republican. I think he’s actually, I think he’s actually a Democrat,” Trump said Tuesday.

The president personally visited Kentucky in March, and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth made a highly unusual trip to the district on Monday to campaign alongside Gallrein and urge voters to send Trump “reinforcements” in Congress, where the GOP is seeking to hold onto its narrow majority in November’s midterm elections.

In Kentucky’s 4th District, which has routinely elected Massie by about 30 percentage points, voters took Trump’s side on Tuesday.

Massie’s loss is a reminder for Republicans in Washington and statehouses across the country that even with Trump’s approval rating slipping into the mid-30s and one of his most reliable demographics turning on the president, he is the party’s leader, he holds the power to force those who don’t follow him to pay a steep political price and he is eager to wield it.

The race was one of the most expensive primaries in history, with $19 million being spent on advertising supporting Gallrein and $14 million on pro-Massie ads.

How Trump lifted Barr to nomination for McConnell’s seat

Retiring Sen. Mitch McConnell was once a political titan — the most powerful Republican in the nation and long a dominant force in Kentucky politics. But Trump soured on him when McConnell refused to parrot Trump’s lies about widespread fraud in the 2020 election, and on Tuesday, McConnell’s reign ended with a whimper.

In the Republican primary to replace McConnell, Trump’s pick, Rep. Andy Barr, defeated former state Attorney General Daniel Cameron — who was once seen as McConnell’s political protege and rising star within the party, though that star shined less brightly after Cameron lost the 2023 governor’s race to Democratic incumbent Andy Beshear.

Trump didn’t just endorse Barr. He further cleared his path to the nomination by convincing another top contender, businessman Nate Morris, to drop his campaign and accept an ambassadorship.

All three candidates got their start in politics interning for McConnell. But the primary showed just how much McConnell’s influence has faded in recent years. Cameron had turned on McConnell and fully embraced Trump during the primary. And McConnell, in turn, had not endorsed a candidate.

Barr’s nomination positions him as the overwhelming favorite to become Kentucky’s next senator. And if he wins, it will mark the replacement of a powerful voice that has at times broken from Trump with a staunch presidential ally on Capitol Hill next year.

Georgia GOP governor primary heads to runoff

The GOP race to replace term-limited Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp is headed to a June 16 runoff after no candidate cleared the 50% threshold on Tuesday.

Trump-endorsed Lt. Gov. Burt Jones will take on businessman Rick Jackson in the head-to-head.

The two topped a pair of statewide elected officials: Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, whose national profile rose after he refused to back Trump’s false claims about fraud in the 2020 election, and Attorney General Chris Carr.

The winner could face Democratic former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms in November. That primary has not yet been called, but the major question is whether she will top 50% and avoid a runoff.

Cornyn next?

Another chance for Trump to flex his influence — and reshape the GOP’s Senate majority in his image — looms in Texas, where Trump on Tuesday endorsed Attorney General Ken Paxton in his May 26 Senate primary runoff against four-term incumbent Sen. John Cornyn.

Trump’s endorsement of Paxton, a controversial figure with a long history of scandals who has aligned himself with Trump’s “Make America Great Again” movement, comes despite warnings from prominent Republicans that doing so could put the party at risk of losing the race to Democratic nominee James Talarico in November.

Cornyn responded to Trump’s endorsement of Paxton by noting on social media he had voted with the president 99% of the time.

But he partnered with Democrats in 2022 to pass gun safety legislation, and was slow to get in line behind Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign. Paxton, meanwhile, rushed to court in 2020 to contest the presidential election. And Trump made clear that he was looked for personal loyalty.

In his Truth Social post endorsing Paxton, Trump called the attorney general “someone who has always been extremely loyal to me and our AMAZING MAGA MOVEMENT.”

He said Cornyn is a “good man,” but added that he “was not supportive of me when times were tough.”

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