Who is Ed Gallrein? Trump-endorsed candidate launches run against Thomas Massie

Austin Horn, Lexington Herald-Leader on Oct 21, 2025

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LEXINGTON, Ky. — President Donald Trump’s threats to run a GOP primary challenger against Rep. Thomas Massie have come to fruition.

Ed Gallrein, a Trump-endorsed candidate from Shelby County, officially launched his campaign against Massie Tuesday morning.

“I’ve dedicated my life to serving my country, and I’m ready to answer the call again. This district is Trump Country. The president doesn’t need obstacles in Congress — he needs backup. I’ll defeat Thomas Massie, stand shoulder to shoulder with President Trump, and deliver the America First results Kentuckians voted for,” Gallrein wrote in a press release announcing his campaign.

Trump has long feuded with Massie over the Northern Kentucky congressman’s contrarian, and very public, stances against him dating back to Trump’s first term.

Trump’s frustration reached new heights this year with Massie’s objection to his budget bill and his foreign policy in the Middle East, as well as Massie’s insistence that the full files on late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein be released.

A political action committee affiliated with Trump’s team, MAGA KY, has unloaded $1.8 million in ads against Massie so far, according to the Federal Elections Commission.

Massie, fresh off a fundraising quarter that saw him bring in a record $786,000 to pad a campaign warchest of $2 million, expressed confidence that he could beat Gallrein. He called him a candidate of the “uniparty,” a term used to deride politicians seen as too similar to the opposing party.

“The uniparty in DC finally found someone willing to be a rubber stamp for globalist billionaires, endless debt, foreign aid, and forever wars in failed candidate and Lindsey Graham donor Ed Gallrein,” Massie wrote in a news release. “Fourth district voters appreciate having an independent conservative voice who works for them, and I look forward to continuing my fight for transparency, constitutional rights, secure borders, a true America-first foreign policy, and fiscal responsibility.”

Gallrein has a history in Kentucky politics.

In 2024, he was the Senate GOP Caucus’ pick, via its fundraising arm, to fill one of the state’s 38 Senate seats over the incumbent.

The incumbent, former state Sen. Adrienne Southworth, did not win; neither did Gallrein.

Sen. Aaron Reed, R-Shelbyville, emerged victorious over a second place Gallrein by one percentage point, or a little over one hundred votes.

Reed was reportedly a top contender to get Trump’s endorsement against Massie. A September report from POLITICO suggested his meeting with Trump did not go well due in part to his anti-abortion stance.

Who is Ed Gallrein?

A retired Navy SEAL, Gallrein’s family runs a popular destination farm in Shelby County, a populous locale in the district’s far western stretch.

Massie, conversely, lives on the eastern edge of the district; the most populated section of the district remains the three suburban Northern Kentucky counties of Boone, Kenton and Campbell.

Gallrein served in the military for more than 30 years, according to campaign materials from his 2024 run. In that campaign, he billed himself as a “farmer, a family man and a career Navy SEAL officer.” An ad also claimed that he was “100% pro-life and pro-Second Amendment.”

The release from Gallrein’s campaign claims he was inspired by late Republican President Ronald Reagan to become a Navy SEAL officer. He attained the rank of captain and served multiple times on SEAL Team SIX, deploying in Panama, Afghanistan and Iraq.

Can Gallrein beat Massie?

Some supporters believe Gallrein will forge an “unholy alliance” of more moderate, chamber of commerce-aligned Republicans in Northern Kentucky and Trump loyalist voters throughout the district.

“There will be an unholy alliance, no doubt about it,” Eric Deters, former GOP candidate against Massie, told the Herald-Leader. “Massie will have his hardcore voters, and that’s it. If it’s somebody that likes Massie and likes Trump, and they’re not in Massie’s inner circle, they’re going to vote for their president.”

A longtime detractor of Massie’s, Deters thinks there’s a certain amount of loyalty to the congressman in the district — Massie easily fended off Deters and another challenger in 2024 — but the dynamic is different now with Trump’s full support.

“I think Thomas Massie finally smarted off one too many times. I think that’s how people feel about Massie,” Deters said.

Not everyone sees it that way.

Longtime Massie ally state Rep. Savannah Maddox, R-Dry Ridge, said that in Northern Kentucky it will be a matter of voters picking between a candidate they know and one they don’t — and nobody knows Gallrein, she said.

“I know that he’s a failed state senate candidate who came up short, and I know he has a military background, but that’s all I really know,” Maddox said. “People know Thomas. They know what he’s about. Whether they agree with him or not, they know he’s consistent.”

Massie has served the Northern Kentucky-centric 4th Congressional District for more than a decade, first elected in 2012. He has not faced a close primary or general election challenge since coming out of the crowded 2012 GOP primary with 45% of the vote.

With his name all over the news and social media, thanks in large part to his stance on the Epstein files, the Northern Kentucky congressman has also drawn praise from some of the wealthiest people in the country.

Jack Dorsey, the billionaire founder of Twitter, which now goes by X, posted Sunday night that he’d support Massie for president in 2028. In July, Elon Musk, the richest man in the world who now owns X, posted that he would support Massie against a Trump-backed challenger .

Another local Massie ally, state Rep. Steven Doan, R-Erlanger, compared Trump and Massie’s tiff to “mom and dad fighting” and your average voter won’t hold Trump’s ire against Massie.

He also suggested that Massie can credibly run as not “anti-Trump” on most issues.

“He supports the vast majority of what Trump does. He’s not anti-Trump, he’s not against Trump, he just doesn’t support increased debt and providing funding to foreign governments,” Doan said.

It appears that Massie’s “anti-Trump” streak will be a focal point of Gallrein’s messaging based off his first press release.

“Thomas Massie has become one of the biggest roadblocks to President Trump’s America First agenda,” Gallrein said in the news release. “When Trump fought for historic tax cuts, Massie voted no. When Trump tried to fully fund border security, Massie stood in the way. President Trump endorsed me because Kentuckians deserve a Congressman who will stand with our President, not against him.”