Kentucky’s primary vote will determine whether Trump’s influence remains strong as he takes aim at a Republican critic in a key midterm race.
Washington: US President Donald Trump’s grip on his support base will be put to the latest test on Tuesday, with voters deciding whether one of Congress’s most independent conservatives can survive the Republican leader’s full political firepower.
Several states are holding primaries to choose candidates for the November midterm elections, but the hottest contest is in Kentucky, where Trump aims to oust seven-term Republican Thomas Massie, one of the president’s most frequent internal critics.
The race is being seen as a measure of whether Trump’s hold on Republican voters remains strong despite the war, inflation and declining national approval ratings — and whether there is still room in the party for lawmakers willing to break with him.
Massey has angered Trump by opposing U.S. military action in Iran and Venezuela, criticizing aid to Israel, opposing parts of the president’s agenda and helping to release files related to multi-millionaire sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Trump has endorsed Ed Galerin, a farmer and retired Navy SEAL, in what the US media has described as the most expensive House primary in US history, with more than $32 million in advertising spending – much of it from Macy’s anti-Israel pro-government groups.
The president has spent months attacking the 55-year-old former engineer and inventor as disloyal, calling him a “moron,” a “crazy idiot” and a “big bastard.”
“He is the worst ‘Republican’ congressman in history,” Trump wrote on Truth Social, after telling voters at a March rally that he wanted “somebody with a warm body” to defeat Massie.
Massie has cast the race as a test of independence within the Republican Party.
“They want 100 percent compliance,” Massie has said of the White House, arguing that he votes with Trump most of the time but is punished when he disagrees.
The clash in Kentucky came after Trump-backed forces defeated Indiana state lawmakers who opposed his redistricting demands and after Louisiana Senator Bill Cassidy, who voted to convict Trump after the 2021 US Capitol riot, failed to make a runoff over the weekend.
Massey’s defeat would serve as another warning to his party about the cost of overcoming Trump, while a victory would offer rare evidence that Republican critics can escape the president’s wrath.
Elsewhere Tuesday, Georgia voters are choosing candidates in the Senate and gubernatorial primaries, but the state Supreme Court race may provide the clearest bellwether in a key swing state.
Democrats are trying to remove the two outgoing judges from those contests, who have received support from Barack Obama and other party stalwarts. No outgoing Georgia Supreme Court justice has lost re-election in more than a century.
