Former Navy SEAL launches Trump-backed Kentucky primary challenge against Massie

FIRST ON FOX – A former longtime Navy SEAL and fifth-generation Kentucky farmer who is backed by President Donald Trump on Tuesday declared his candidacy in the state’s 4th Congressional District, as he challenges Republican Rep. Thomas Massie in next year’s GOP primary.

“I’ve dedicated my life to serving my country, and I’m ready to answer the call again,” Ed Gallrein said in a statement shared first with Fox News Digital. 

And pointing to Massie, a frequent GOP critic of the president during his second term in the White House, Gallrein emphasized, “This district is Trump Country. The President doesn’t need obstacles in Congress – he needs backup. I’ll defeat Thomas Massie, stand shoulder to shoulder with President Trump, and deliver the America First results Kentuckians voted for.”

The campaign launch comes four days after Trump took to social media to praise Gallrein, urge him to run, and blast Massie.

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Representative Thomas Massie, a Republican from Kentucky, arrives for a news conference outside the US Capitol in Washington, DC, on Wednesday, Sept. 3, 2025 (Graeme Sloan/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Trump argued that Massie was a “Third Rate Congressman,” a “Weak and Pathetic RINO,” and a “totally ineffective LOSER who has failed us so badly.”

And the president applauded Gallrein, calling him a “Brave Combat Veteran” and a “very successful Businessman” who, if elected to Congress, would “fight tirelessly to Keep our now very Secure Border, SECURE, Stop Migrant Crime, and Defend our always under siege Second Amendment.”

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Trump’s social media post included a photo of himself and Gallrein holding red MAGA hats in the Oval Office.

Gallrein served three decades in uniform, rising to the rank of Captain. According to his campaign bio, he served multiple times on SEAL Team SIX, deploying to Panama, Afghanistan, and Iraq, and earned four Bronze Stars and two Presidential Unit Citations.

Ed Gallrein, left, seen with President Donald Trump in the Oval Office at the White House, on Tuesday launched a congressional bid to primary challenge Republican Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky, Gallrein’s campaign launch comes four days after Trump backed him and urged him to run. (Ed Gallrein congressional campaign)

His campaign release also highlighted that “Gallrein’s roots run deep in Kentucky.” He was born and raised in the state. And his family, which has farmed for over a century, built Kentucky’s largest dairy farm and Gallrein Grain Farms, one of the state’s largest grain operations.

Massie took aim at Gallrein following Trump’s social media endorsement, calling him a “failed candidate and establishment hack,” as he pointed to Gallrein’s unsuccessful run last year for the state Senate.

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“After having been rejected by every elected official in the 4th District, Trump’s consultants clearly pushed the panic button with their choice of failed candidate and establishment hack Ed Gallrein,” Massie said in a statement to Politico. “Ed’s been begging them to pick him for over three months now.”

Trump started targeting Massie for ouster earlier this year over the seven-term lawmaker’s opposition to the “One Big Beautiful Bill,” which passed the GOP-controlled Congress early in the summer nearly entirely along party lines. The sweeping GOP megalaw is the president’s major legislative achievement since returning to the White House.

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) speaks with Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) and Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) during a news conference with alleged victims of disgraced financier and sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein outside the U.S. Capitol on September 3, 2025, in Washington, DC. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

Massie is also leading the push, along with Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna of California, in forcing a House floor vote to urge the release of the Justice Department’s files on the late convicted sex-trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, a move the White House and House GOP leaders have aimed to counter. Massie is on the verge of reaching the needed 218 signatures to force the vote.

Two top Trump political advisers — 2024 co-campaign manager Chris LaCivita and pollster Tony Fabrizio — in June launched a super PAC that aims to defeat Massie. Nearly $2 million has been spent already to run TV ads targeting Massie.

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But Massie has used the attacks from Trump and his allies to boost fundraising, hauling in more than $750,000 the past three months, which was the best fundraising quarter of his congressional career.

Massie’s district, in the northeastern part of the state, includes Louisville’s eastern suburbs and Cincinnati’s Kentucky suburbs.