Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky reportedly made clear Friday that he will remain firmly behind Representative Thomas Massie as the two libertarian-leaning Republicans brace for a heated primary fight back home — one now fueled by President Donald Trump’s decision to try to oust the incumbent congressman.
Trump endorsed veteran Ed Gallrein last week, urging Kentucky Republicans to replace Massie in the 2026 primary.
The move followed Massie’s bipartisan push to unseal files related to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and his refusal to support a summer spending package, positioning him once again at odds with party leadership.
Paul, however, said he has no intention of abandoning a longtime ally who has often joined him in challenging expansive federal power.
“Thomas Massie is going to win,” Paul said in a Friday interview with Politico’s Dasha Burns. “I’m going to help him. I’m going to be with him every step of the way.”
The senator himself has recently drawn Trump’s criticism. But Paul insisted that both he and Massie remain more aligned with the president’s core platform than the advisers who now surround him.
“The irony is that both myself and Thomas Massie, in many ways, support the president’s agenda significantly more than the people who have gotten close to him,” Paul said. Those individuals, he argued, come from “the interventionist wing of the party,” supporting policies such as “regime change in Venezuela” and more advanced weapons to Ukraine — positions he said run counter to the priorities that helped elect Trump.
“These are the people who have always opposed Donald Trump,” Paul said.
The senator positioned his and Massie’s vision as committed to constitutional restraint and fiscal prudence. They will continue, he said, to fight for “enumerated powers” alongside “balanced budgets, low taxes and less foreign war.”
Paul has already campaigned with Massie and plans to return to the trail soon. The duo has sought to frame Gallrein’s challenge as an attempt by outside interests to manipulate Kentucky politics.
“We had big rallies and great deal of support,” Paul said. “So people think they can waltz into Kentucky with a bunch of New York money and buy a seat. They’ve got another thing coming.”
The primary intervention by Trump signals a deepening rift within the GOP between populist foreign-policy skeptics and more establishment figures pressing for a more assertive global role. Paul’s decision underscores the durability of the libertarian wing’s influence in Kentucky — and suggests that Massie will not face his reelection fight alone.
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