Massie and Gallrein raise tons of cash. Almost none of it is from Kentucky
The proxy war between President Donald Trump and Republican Rep. Thomas Massie is getting expensive.
Hardly any of the money fueling the race is from Kentucky, though.
Ed Gallrein, a Republican endorsed by Trump as part of the president’s ongoing feud with Massie, brought in an impressive $1.2 million-plus into his campaign coffers. Only $32,000 of that — about 2.6% — came from Kentucky donors. The Shelby County native has also been boosted by a political action committee funded by $2.75 million from out-of-state donors.
For his part, the vast majority of Massie’s donations weren’t from Kentucky. From Jan. 1 to Sep. 30, about 4.3% of Massie’s campaign haul — $53,000 of about $1.23 million individual itemized donations — was from Kentucky donors. In a separate document detailing donations to his campaign in the last three months of 2025, $36,000 of his $638,000 raised, or about 5.6%, was from Kentucky.
Why are so many people from elsewhere interested in the outcome of one of Kentucky’s six congressional GOP primaries?
The rest of the nation is, simply put, interested.
Massie has continually grown his profile with his contrarian brand of Libertarian-infused Republican politics. He voted against Trump’s wishes multiple times during the president’s first term and has done so in an even more high-profile manner this term on foreign and domestic policy alike.
Jake Cox, a Kentucky Republican strategist not affiliated with either campaign, told the Herald-Leader he thought it’s not as much about a lack of Kentucky supporters as it is the national audience for them both.
“Massie has a base that’s out there across the country. The same can be said for the president and, by proxy, Ed Gallrein. Where there’s a national following, national money will follow,” Cox said.
Since his return to office, Trump has routinely taken to social media to denigrate Massie for insubordination to Trump’s agenda.
In a post Monday to his Truth Social network, Trump went after Massie’s wife, Carolyn, whom he married in October. Massie’s late wife, Rhonda, died in 2024.
“People are saying that Thomas Massie became a Liberal because his new wife, blessed be their marriage, is supposedly a Radical Left ‘flamethrower,’” Trump wrote. “This new union all went so fast that maybe he didn’t know what he was getting into but, nevertheless, he is an absolutely terrible and unreliable ‘Republican’ — Perhaps a RINO [Republican in name only], or maybe even worse!”
Both candidates used an opportunity to comment on this story to dump on their opponents.
Though the percentages of Kentuckians contributing aren’t radically different, Massie wrote in a statement to the Herald-Leader that the overall number of Kentuckians to contribute to him is much higher. He also pointed out specifically that Gallrein had no donations from the three core Northern Kentucky counties of Boone, Kenton and Campbell, the three counties with the highest vote total in 2024’s primary election.
“His campaign lacks any grassroots support outside of his home county which he couldn’t even carry in his state senate race. He’s hoping woke billionaires, liberal lawyers, and foreign special interests will buy him a seat in Congress but Kentucky voters won’t fall for it,” Massie wrote.
Lance Trover, a campaign spokesperson for Gallrein, wrote in a statement to the Herald-Leader that some of Massie’s donors are liberals attracted to his “anti-Trump” posture.
“The larger question voters should be asking themselves is this: why are the very same people who donate to the Squad, Kamala Harris, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton now funding Thomas Massie? It’s because these donors have realized Massie is a roadblock to President Trump and Trump’s agenda,” Trover wrote.
PAC spending
It’s easy to calculate the percentage of Kentuckians giving to PACs helping either side in the race: zero.
The most active outside group spending in the race has been MAGA KY, which has ties to many on Trump’s political team, including 2024 campaign senior adviser Chris LaCivita.
MAGA KY raised $2.75 million in 2025. In the most recent quarter, it got $750,000 from America 21 PAC, which is funded by billionaire hedge fund manager Paul Singer.
Earlier in the year, Singer directly gave MAGA KY $1 million, a PAC tied to casino mogul Miriam Adelson contributed $750,000 and hedge fund manager John Paulson gave the PAC $250,000.
Massie has tied the three billionaire’s support for MAGA KY to their support for Israel.
“Three billionaires from New York City and Las Vegas have funded a superPAC deceptively named Kentucky MAGA to run millions of dollars of negative ads against me because I vote against foreign aid for Israel and needless wars in the Middle East. Kentuckians aren’t falling for it,” Massie wrote last year.
Massie’s leadership PAC, Making A Sensible Shift in Elections (MASSIE), raised $90,000 in 2025. No donors were from Kentucky.
Kentucky First PAC, which spent $1 million on a pro-Massie ad buy in December, was funded by a $1,010,000 contribution from another group funded by Jeff Yass, a Pennsylvania financier billionaire with close ties to Sen. Rand Paul. It also got $100,000 from Abby Aldrich, whose location and occupation are not listed in the report.
This story was originally published February 5, 2026 at 5:00 AM.
