Maverick Kentucky congressman has avoided fallout at home after antagonizing GOP leaders

FRANKFORT, Ky.– Republican Rep. Thomas Massie has made a habit of antagonizing Washington’s most powerful leaders in his own party, but so far this has not eroded his support in his staunchly conservative Kentucky district.

Four years ago, Massie drew the ire of then-President Donald Trump when the congressman single-handedly delayed passage of a massive COVID-19 relief package. Trump called the Kentuckian a “third-rate grandstander” for his tactics. The blow would have been a political death blow for many Republican politicians, but for Massie it was a bump in the road as he headed for re-election that year.

This month, Massie joined an insurrection against House Speaker Mike Johnson — a long-shot effort that was overwhelmingly rejected by his colleagues. Yet Massie appears unconcerned about any repercussions from his constituents as they seek to oust the Republican House leader – nicknamed “MAGA Mike Johnson” by Trump.

“It’s a lot of inside baseball and at the end of the day, because he’s still the speaker, I think a lot of people don’t care,” Massie said in a telephone interview Wednesday.

Massie will be challenged in Tuesday’s Kentucky primary by fellow Republicans Eric Deters and Michael McGinnis. Three days of early, in-person voting began Thursday.

The MIT-educated maverick who joined Congress in late 2012 has been a magnet for controversy.

In 2021, his family held guns as they posed in front of a Christmas tree. The photo received thousands of likes on social media and was also criticized for being posted days after four teenagers were killed in a shooting in Michigan. That year, Massie was also fined for refusing to wear face coverings on the House floor during the COVID-19 pandemic. He jokes that there is “not enough airtime” to advertise all the politically risky votes he has cast. A group affiliated with a pro-Israel lobbying organization has attacked Massie for voices seen as anti-Israel.

And yet the libertarian has consistently won by overwhelming margins in his district, which stretches across northern Kentucky and includes a mix of rural and suburban voters.

“He is a smart and strategic campaigner, so potential challengers know he will fight hard to keep his seat. I learned that the hard way,” said Todd McMurtry, who lost to Massie in the 2020 GOP primary.

McMurtry tried to capitalize on Trump’s defeat of Massie on social media in 2020, after Massie forced Congress to return to the Capitol and vote on the pandemic relief package in person, potentially exposing his colleagues to the virus and wishing from public health experts were contradicted.

Massie was unapologetic, saying he was trying to stop what he saw as an unconstitutional vote on a wasteful bill. He deflected Trump’s attacks by joking that as a tribune he was at best “second rate.” But Massie feared at the time that the consequences of his action would be politically fatal.

“I called my top two executives before I did it and said, ‘Are you okay with losing your job? Because this almost certainly means the end of me in Congress,” Massie recalled this week. “And they said to me, ‘We don’t want to work for you if you don’t do this.’”

Instead of withering away from the onslaught, Massie showed his staying power by winning the 2020 Republican Party primary by a lopsided margin. Two years later, Massie was back in Trump’s good graces, winning the former president’s support en route to another reelection victory.

Reflecting on his back-and-forth relationship with Trump, Massie said Wednesday that the former president is “beloved” by Republicans in his district. But he said his voters also “appreciate someone who comes here and votes the way he thinks is best, even if that sometimes goes against Trump.” So that’s kind of my brand right now. It’s ingrained in it.’

Massie risked incurring Trump’s wrath again by supporting Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’ failed bid for the White House. Trump did not endorse Massie’s primary this year.

Deters, the congressman’s best-known challenger, has played up his steadfast support for Trump — the presumptive Republican nominee for president — in his bid to defeat Massie. He has portrayed Massie as a “goofball” who has failed to make any achievements in Congress. Deters ran for governor last year and finished fourth in the Republican primary.

McGinnis says he is committed to “fixing Congress, fixing the budget process, cutting wasteful spending, fixing the immigration system and ‘draining the swamp,’” echoing some of Trump’s themes puts forward.

There is no Democrat running for the seat this year.

Massie said his district has benefited from his service on the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. But he is best known as a short-changer, having even designed a custom debt clock that he hangs on his lapel to remind people of the country’s mounting debts. The congressman blames rounds of COVID-19 stimulus spending for fueling high inflation, pinching pockets.

“This is the biggest problem – the spending – and it will ultimately break us,” he said.

Massie is one day seen as a potential candidate for Senate or governor. Asked about his political future, he said: “I don’t rule anything out. But my plans right now are to stay in this seat.”

McMurtry said no one has yet been able to get the message across that Massie’s “oppositional, defiant attitude toward the cases is hurting Kentuckians.” But he predicted that Trump will win back the presidency in November, and that Massie’s record of offending Trump will catch up with him.

“Two years from now, I expect then-President Trump will find someone he wants to fill,” McMurtry said. “All it takes is an endorsement from Trump to win that seat. Mr. Massie’s support of Governor DeSantis was a strategic mistake.”