Ed Gallrein, Trump-backed opponent for Massie, rakes in $1.2 million
Rep. Thomas Massie’s Trump-endorsed GOP primary opponent is off to a hot fundraising start.
Ed Gallrein, a Shelby County veteran of the Navy SEAL special operations force, raised $1.2 million in the final quarter of 2025, according to a release from Gallrein’s team Friday. He launched his campaign in mid-October.
President Donald Trump endorsed Gallrein near the end of a contentious year between himself and Massie.
The Northern Kentucky congressman has long been unafraid to buck Trump, but he upped the ante in 2025. Massie was the among the loudest GOP voices against Trump’s marquee budget bill and the administration’s strikes on nuclear assets in Iran. He also led the charge on a bill forcing the release of documents related to late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, which Trump initially opposed.
“This fundraising number reflects the overwhelming support Ed’s campaign has received right out of the gate. President Trump endorsed Ed because he knows Ed is fighting to put America First and will partner with him to unleash our economy, lower taxes, and stop the woke agenda,” Lance Trover, a spokesperson for the Gallrein Campaign, wrote in a statement.
Gallrein was recruited by Trump’s team, who for months teased a challenger against Massie. Aaron Reed, the state senator from Shelbyville who narrowly defeated Gallrein in a 2024 primary for his seat, was once considered.
James Blair, White House Deputy Chief of Staff and political director for Trump’s presidential campaign, bashed Massie’s vote against Trump’s budget bill in an X post on Friday. The bill did many things, but Massie voted “no” because it increased the federal budget deficit.
“Now’s a good time to remind everyone that in 2025, Thomas Massie voted against immigration enforcement and against eligibility verification for welfare recipients,” Blaire wrote.
In a post to his own Truth Social platform in October, Trump called Massie a “totally ineffective LOSER who has failed us so badly,” while praising Gallrein as “a true America First Patriot.”
“Additionally, as a very successful Businessman, Ed knows how to Create GREAT Jobs, Cut Taxes and Regulations, Promote MADE IN THE U.S.A., Support our Amazing Farmers and American Agriculture, Unleash American Energy Dominance, and Champion our Nation’s Golden Age,” Trump wrote at the time.
So far in the campaign, Gallrein has highlighted his military service and connection to Kentucky — his family runs a popular destination farm in Shelby County — and bemoaned how Massie “undermines” Trump.
MAGA KY, a group with ties to Trump’s political team, has raised $2 million in an effort to bring Massie down. The group was running ads against Massie before Gallrein announced.
Gallrein won’t be the only candidate with money backing him. In the first three quarters of 2025, Massie raised about $1.8 million. As of Sep. 30, 2025, his campaign had just over $2 million on hand.
A political action committee supporting Massie, Kentucky First, recently got a shot in the arm from a group largely funded by Jeff Yass, a Pennsylvania billionaire donor with close ties to Sen. Rand Paul. Massie and Paul have been allies since Massie’s first federal race in 2012. The Yass-backed group gave Kentucky First $1 million on Oct. 23.
A third Republican candidate, Robert S. Wells of Lakeside Park, has filed to run for the seat. Two Democrats, Jesse Russell Brewer and Melissa Claire Strange, also are running.
Since he won a crowded primary race for the seat in 2012, no opponent, Democrat or Republican, has gotten within 20 points of defeating Massie.
