Thomas Massie

Donald Trump, Thomas Massie, and the Long, Slow Death of the Tea Party

Whatever happens in Kentucky's GOP primary, the populist right no longer even pretends to care about spending or government overreach.

Nick Gillespie | 5.18.2026 7:05 PM

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In one of Tuesday's most-watched primaries, libertarian-leaning Rep. Thomas Massie (R–Ky.) will go up against an opponent backed by President Donald Trump. The winner of the primary will almost certainly win the general election in Kentucky's 4th congressional district. As Reason's Editor in Chief Katherine Mangu-Ward opined in The New York Times last week, "Congress, and the Republican Party, would be worse off without the friction and clarity Mr. Massie provides."

I share her estimation, adding only that the country would be worse off, too. Since arriving in Congress in late 2012, Massie has been a reliable advocate for smaller government, lower spending, and abstention from foreign conflicts. More of all that, please.

But as important: What kind of country have we become if unlikely characters like Massie no longer haunt the halls of power? By his own account, he's equal parts country boy and tech genius, and his "gateway issue into liberty was gun rights" when he showed up at the urbane, liberal Massachusetts Institute of Technology after growing up in the wilds of Kentucky. As he told me a decade ago, "I grew up in a rural area where everybody had guns. And then I went to college and realized people in college wanted to ban these things." As an engineer, he went from that insight to building a mental system that consistently puts him on the side of a federal government that does less and controls less.

But if Massie loses, it's not just the........

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