Mitch McConnell had become a legend in the US Senate. McConnell was elected seven times and built the most powerful Republican machine in the Senate. McConnell outlasted six Presidents. McConnell passed the torch onto his picked successor, John Thune. Then he announced his retirement and endorsed a successor for his seat in Kentucky.
Every single establishment figure watching this told their donors “the McConnell network is durable”. Every single one assumed the old machine had enough infrastructure to survive his retirement. They were all wrong.
Trump walked in on May 1st and endorsed Andy Barr.
Cameron — the man who was supposed to carry McConnell’s network forward — entered with a polling lead, raised money, had the name recognition and had the Christian conservative base.
Barr had none of that early until Trump stepped in.
Cameron finished at 30%. Barr won with 60%.
The seat McConnell held since 1984 flipped to a Trump loyalist in a single primary night. The McConnell network did not survive a single election cycle.
In other Kentucky election news, Thomas Massie, the incumbent House member who has often been at odds with the President, lost his primary race. This is a House member who had great name recognition. He was defeated by Ed Gallrein, a relative unknown, in the Republican primary for House district #4 in Kentucky. This certainly appears to be a FAFO event.
Ed Gallrein:
“I was only in this race really for about 15 weeks. When you pull the holidays out, it was a David versus Goliath. I was the underdog.
“I want to thank President Trump for his support, his endorsement, and his counsel as I navigated this campaign. Which is a journey unto itself. And for his courageous leadership of our nation at this critical time, at this critical juncture in history. Thank you, Mr. President.”
CNN’s Harry Enten explained the Thomas Massie primary upset in Kentucky.
“I wasn’t surprised at all because the bottom line is this; Donald Trump is the general of the Republican Party and the Republican primary voters are his soldiers,” Enten said.
He continued: “And if you look at Thomas Massie, you can see it very clearly. You look in 2020, 2022, 2024, he was getting 75%, upwards of 81% of the primary vote in 2020. And today he gets less than 50% of vote, that’s the story!”
Massie may have exposed his darker side with his concession speech. He said, “I would have called Ed Gallrein but you know, had to find him in Tel Aviv.”
Scott Jennings noted, “There was an undercurrent of antisemitism on this race on the Massie side. It has been an undercurrent unfortunately and it really came out in an ugly way tonight and I think it needs to be stated, acknowledged, condemned because it was pretty despicable.”
Trump’s influence over Republican primary voters remains dominant. Massie, once winning by huge margins, fell sharply after crossing the president. The numbers don’t lie — Trump’s endorsement power decides races.