KY Senate GOP candidates don’t want to talk about Rand Paul or Thomas Massie
Two names you won’t hear much in Kentucky’s most hotly contested political race: Thomas Massie and Rand Paul.
The contrarian pair of Kentucky Republicans have gained national notoriety and consistent state press for bucking the will of President Donald Trump with their opinions on foreign policy, tariffs and the files related to late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
But none of the three leading candidates in Kentucky’s Republican primary for U.S. Senate in 2026 want to talk about them.
Former Attorney General Daniel Cameron declined to be interviewed about Massie and Paul’s frequent disagreements with Trump. Lexington tech entrepreneur Nate Morris did not respond to an interview request. Rep. Andy Barr’s team provided a statement instead of granting an interview.
Paul himself addressed this at a recent appearance alongside Massie in Northern Kentucky.
“If they haven’t figured out a smart strategy yet, then they need to think it through,” he said. “It’s not my job to tell other people what to like or dislike about what I’m doing.”
This is to be expected, said Trey Grayson, a former Kentucky secretary of state who lost to Paul in the 2010 GOP primary, which was the last time a U.S. Senate seat was open in Kentucky. An endorsement from Trump is the golden ticket to the nomination, he said; side with Massie or Paul, and the ticket might be granted to someone else.
“The lens that everything in the Senate primary has to be viewed through is ‘what increases or decreases the likelihood of a Trump endorsement for your candidacy or for an opponent’s candidacy?’”
Through that lens, it’s best not to weigh in at all, he said.
But there’s another GOP candidate who doesn’t care about that.
Michael Faris has never held elected office and is still trying to generate name ID around the state, having only raised about $4,000 in the first months of his campaign. He has not shied away from criticizing Trump as well as other Republicans popular in Kentucky when he disagrees with them.
“I’m not a Trump loyalist and I’m not hunting a Trump endorsement. That’s for my opponents,” Faris, 38, told the Herald-Leader in an interview.
Faris is a U.S. Air Force veteran from Elizabethtown who runs a helicopter repair business. It’s not that hard to thread the needle between expressing support for Trump while approving of some of the actions taken by Massie and Paul, Faris argued.
Tariffs? He understands that Massie believes they’re essentially a tax that should require approval from Congress, but agrees with the principle of Trump trying to juice American manufacturing.
Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill Act?” Faris didn’t offer outright praise, but wouldn’t stand in its way like Massie did.
“Not to sound flip-floppy, but if the response from my constituents is I should be voting for the bill — even after I educate them that it’s not exactly what they want — then ultimately, I think my opinion is of no matter,” Faris said.
He lauded Trump’s emphasis on deporting undocumented immigrants, the work of the Department of Government Efficiency and various executive orders. But, like Massie, Paul and a majority of Americans who have been polled on the issue, he dislikes how the Trump administration has handled the Epstein files.
Releasing the full files related to Epstein was a campaign promise of Trump and a rallying cry for media supporters like Kash Patel and Dan Bongino, two popular Trump-aligned influencers. The pair now run the FBI, and the administration has been resistant to Massie’s efforts to release all the files.
“They were supposed to be warriors for truth, who ran podcasts for four or five years saying they would turn the FBI into a museum the next day. Dan Bongino, the unbridled spirit of conservative truth podcasting saying, ‘We need to hold these people accountable.’ Then they get up there and say, ‘This guy trafficked somebody to nobody.’ That’s ridiculous,” Faris said.
Almost every criticism Faris offered came with the caveat that he was not anti-Trump. Yet, he heaped praise on Paul, whose approval rating is high, and Massie.
“It looks like it’s two Kentucky fellas doing the bidding of the entire country to make sure that we’re not ruled by a single man again,” Faris said. “I’m 100% not anti-Trump, but when a man is wrong, he’s wrong. I’ve been there, you’ve been there, they’ve been there.”
Massie, in particular, has drawn the ire of Trump. He has spoken out against, and voted against, Trump’s marquee budget bill. He has criticized the administration’s bombing of a nuclear site in Iran. He was also a thorn in the president’s side when Trump pushed for the passage of a COVID-19 relief bill in 2020.
All of this has led to Trump seeking Massie’s ouster, as he and a political action committee tied to his team have run ads against Massie and sought a viable Republican primary challenger. To date, the group has not yet tapped a GOP candidate in Massie’s Northern Kentucky-based district.
Paul’s relationship with the president is a little more complicated. Trump has often lumped the two together — though, per Massie, he said “like(s) Massie’s hair better” — but still maintains a relationship with Paul.
Barr’s spokesperson offered a statement on the matter, stressing that Barr is his own man.
“Andy Barr isn’t a Thomas Massie, Rand Paul, or Mitch McConnell Republican, he’s his own man — and proud to be a top ally of President Donald J. Trump. Andy chaired Trump’s primary campaign in Kentucky, and he’s the only candidate in this race who helped the President implement the America First Agenda,” spokesperson Alex Bellizzi wrote. “Andy Barr and President Trump are just getting started delivering for Kentuckians.”
Trump, Paul and McConnell ties
Barr is not the only candidate with Trump bonafides.
Cameron spoke on the campaign’s behalf at Fancy Farm, the state’s largest political speaking event, in 2024 and was endorsed by Trump early in the 2023 GOP governor’s primary.
Morris has made a point to gain connections in Trump’s circle, getting plaudits from the president’s son Donald Trump, Jr., as well as former Trump adviser Steve Bannon. Morris also touts a friendship with Vice President JD Vance and is connected to him through campaign adviser Andrew Surabian.
While Paul has diverted from Trump much more vocally, and at a higher rate, than Sen. Mitch McConnell, whose seat the GOP contenders are vying to fill, candidates have made more negative comments toward McConnell than any other Republican politician.
Morris made much of the early days of his campaign centered around going negative on McConnell, calling his run a “referendum” on the longtime senator. That theme dominated his campaign launch, which came with the direct endorsement of the late Charlie Kirk, a conservative influencer whose recent assassination rocked U.S. politics.
Cameron and Barr both criticized the senator at the start of their prospective campaigns, but have cooled in their rhetoric since.
All three candidates interned for McConnell and have some ties to him, but Morris pitched himself as the least influenced by the senator who’s served for more than 40 years, given that Cameron worked for him and Barr has served alongside him for more than a decade.
Thus far, no candidate has publicly criticized any moves by president Trump.
While Barr has used his elected role to sidle close to Trump, like appearing at the signing of Trump’s budget bill and advocating for a $250 bill with Trump’s face on it, Morris and Cameron have made sure to laud every major Trump move on the campaign trail and social media.
Morris has the strongest connection to Paul of the top three GOP candidates.
A Herald-Leader article published in the run-up to Paul’s 2016 presidential campaign titled “Rand Paul’s money man Nate Morris leverages trash contacts for political cash” highlights Morris and Paul’s relationship.
“He’s a go-getter who really differentiates himself. A lot of people offer to help, but then they wait for you to tell them exactly what to do. Nate just went out and started doing it,” Paul said in an interview at the time. “He’s just connected us to some great people.”
Paul has also campaigned alongside Cameron, giving him a boost in Cameron’s ill-fated 2023 general election run against Gov. Andy Beshear. Political action committees affiliated with Paul also chipped in to help Cameron during that cycle.
Paul and Barr’s relationship has been less direct. They often find each other on the same sides of an issue, but Barr rarely aligns with Paul’s more heterodox stances on foreign policy or markets.
Grayson wondered if, as the candidates approach the May primary in 2026, they might rethink their reticence on Massie, and particularly Paul, who is considering a run for president in 2028 and has not drawn the same amount of public criticism from Trump.
“As we get closer to May, does there start to grow a little bit of a crack in the perception that Trump the dominant figure in the party? Six months from now, if there’s inflation, that could be,” Grayson said.
“I can see why they’re not saying anything right now on Paul, but it’s still just fascinating that in a statewide race you wouldn’t want to embrace the other statewide Republican who’s really popular inside the party.”
