Takeaways from Tuesday’s primaries: Massie’s loss leaves no doubt about Trump’s power over the GOP

NEW YORK — President Donald Trump won another success Tuesday, defeating a Republican challenger and ousting Rep. Thomas Massie in the Kentucky primary, eliminating one of his most vocal critics on Capitol Hill.

Massie has been a particularly thorny problem for Trump. He fought to release the Jeffrey Epstein files, opposed the war with Iran and voted against Trump’s key tax legislation last year. He lost to Trump-backed competitor Ed Gallrein in the most costly U.S. House primary ever.

Trump has had a string of triumphs this primary season, but this one possibly sends an even louder message to the president’s Republican detractors. In his deep-red Kentucky district, Massie was entrenched before his battle with Trump escalated, ending a congressional career that began in 2012.

But Massie will be in Congress until his term ends in January, and with no Republican contest on the horizon he now has a freer hand than ever to attack Trump.

Massie’s defeat is another reminder that Republicans give their lawmakers almost no room to defy Trump, who is in a vengeful mood and has persuaded his people to beat his enemies again and again.

Here’s what to know from primaries in Alabama, Georgia, Idaho, Kentucky, Oregon and Pennsylvania.

Trump’s endorsement still reigns supreme Gallrein got a lift from heavy expenditure from AIPAC and pro-Israel groups, which made up roughly half of the money that benefited his candidacy, according to AdImpact.

Ad spending in the 2026 Kentucky 4th Congressional District Republican Primary Pro-Israel groups played major part in supporting campaign versus Massie

But there is no question Trump was the major reason. He has proved repeatedly that Republican primary voters will do what he tells them to, even if his popularity with the larger audience has declined.

Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana couldn’t get a runoff Saturday before Massie’s defeat, unable to restore his connection with Trump five years after he voted to convict him during his second impeachment trial. Earlier this month, Trump knocked off five of seven Indiana Republicans he targeted for voting against his redistricting plan.

Trump also flexed his influence elsewhere Tuesday.

Trump backed Lt. Gov. Burt Jones in a surprisingly nasty contest for the Republican nominee for governor in Georgia. Jones, who has a rich Georgia family, has committed $19 million to his campaign. But healthcare millionaire Rick Jackson has thrown more than $83 million of his fortune into the contest. Jones and Jackson will square off in a runoff on June 16, a level of disproportionate spending that rarely tests the power of a Trump endorsement.

Trump sat out the Georgia Senate election, leaving a huge field of aspirants to duke it out for the chance to face Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff, who is running unopposed for his party’s nomination. But in Alabama, Trump backed Rep. Barry Moore for the Senate seat that Tommy Tuberville is leaving to seek for governor.

But on Tuesday, Trump, who has been on the sidelines of a Senate runoff in Texas that’s happening next week, endorsed Attorney General Ken Paxton over incumbent Sen. John Cornyn.

Pennsylvania primaries: Shapiro wins Trump had a good night on the Republican side but Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro displayed some political muscle of his own.

Shapiro, who has been mentioned as a possible successor to Trump in the White House, endorsed four Democrats running for Congress, three in disputed primaries. And all four won their primaries.

His endorsements include Scranton Mayor Paige Cognetti, Bob Brooks, the president of the state firefighters’ union, Bucks County Commissioner Bob Harvie and Janelle Stelson, a former television news personality who barely lost two years ago.

In some instances, the threshold was low — Cognetti ran unopposed — but Shapiro displayed no sign of weakness as he plows ahead toward a November reelection in swing-state Pennsylvania expected to catapult him into the 2028 presidential campaign.

And if the four Democrats he nominated Tuesday succeed this November in winning Republican seats, Shapiro could have an even better story to tell.

On election night Eugene DePasquale, leader of Pennsylvania’s Democratic Party, told a throng that no one is more dedicated in flipping seats and “taking back the country” than Shapiro.

Trump opponents found themselves politically homeless in GeorgiaGeorgia offered a case study of how terrible it can get for Republicans who reject Trump—especially those who push back on his phony charges of election fraud.

Only a handful of Republicans — including Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and former Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan — denounced Trump’s effort to overturn his 2020 defeat. On Tuesday, Raffensperger and Duncan were on the ballot for governor — Raffensperger as a Republican and Duncan as a Democrat.

Both went down hard.

Raffensperger has spent millions of his own dollars trying to reintroduce himself to Republicans by reminding them of his long history in conservative politics before defying Trump. Duncan also sought to reassure Democratic voters that he could be trusted after reversing his previous opposition to abortion rights, gun control and expanding the state’s Medicaid program.

It did not work.

The president has continued to lie, saying he lost the 2020 election because of fraud, and he has stoked bogus worries about the impending November midterm elections.

But the results for Raffensperger and Duncan could be a reminder to Republicans of the perils of pushing back.

Jackson and Jones, the two frontrunners in the GOP contest for governor, have both questioned or contradicted the results of the 2020 election. In fact, Jackson even sponsored a campaign ad in the weeks before the race slamming Raffensperger for resisting Trump’s attempt to overturn 2020.

Alabama votes invalidated More than 100,000 people voted in four of Alabama’s seven congressional districts and those votes may not count.

That’s because last week Republican Gov. Kay Ivey attempted to push out the primaries to Aug. 11, emboldened by the recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling that gutted the Voting Rights Act. Now Republicans in Alabama, South Carolina, Louisiana and Tennessee are racing to redraw congressional lines to reduce the number of majority-Black U.S. House districts and maximize their political advantage.

Rep. David Scott’s death a reminder of Democratic gerontocracy The late Rep. David Scott, D-Ga., was the fourth Democrat to die in Congress this term, adding to a growing discontent on the left about the party’s aging leadership. Scott was 80 when he died and was pursuing a 13th term.

Scott is one of five names on the Democratic primary ballot, but votes for him won't count.

State Rep. Jasmine Clark won the nomination on Tuesday night and is very guaranteed to win the general election in a district that is strongly Democratic.

All around the country, young Democrats are taking on their elders in primaries. Some have fallen short, but the campaigns have tapped into a rage that an aging generation of lawmakers has been unable or unwilling to express in a bare-knuckle opposition to Trump.