Massie primary tests Trump’s grip on GOP

President Trump’s quest to unseat Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) will come to a head Tuesday, as primary voters weigh whether there is room in the Republican Party for a lawmaker willing to openly defy the president. 

The race has become the most expensive House primary battle in U.S. history, according to AdImpact, drawing $25.6 million in television, radio and digital advertising, as outside groups and national Republicans flood Kentucky’s 4th Congressional District with bitter attack ads.

“It isn’t just a congressional primary. It’s a test of Trump’s strength and who turns out,” Kentucky-based GOP strategist TJ Litafik said in an interview with The Hill. “It’s a very epic battle in the Republican Party.”

Trump set his sights on Massie after the libertarian Republican publicly broke with the president on a series of high-profile issues, elevating an otherwise safe GOP primary into a personal political fight for Trump. 

The president recruited and endorsed GOP challenger Ed Gallrein, a retired Navy SEAL, and even traveled to Kentucky in March to urge Republican voters to oust Massie, whom he has called a “nutjob” who “will go down as the WORST Republican Congressman.”

“I just can’t stand this guy,” Trump told the crowd in Massie’s district in early March, adding, “We’ve got to get rid of this loser.”

For many Republican strategists, Tuesday’s primary will test whether Trump’s most aggressive campaign yet against a GOP dissenter — fueled by record-breaking spending and the weight of the party establishment — will be enough to defeat a contrarian congressman whose independent streak has helped keep him in office for more than a decade.

The primary comes after Trump successfully unseated nearly every Indiana GOP state senator he targeted for opposing a GOP-friendly mid-decade redistricting plan. The president has also targeted incumbent Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) for, most recently, blocking Trump’s pick for surgeon general. 

“What I think we’re all watching is, after Indiana, Trump showcased that he still has ironclad control of the Republican Party. The Massie........

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