The Trump-driven ousting of Kentucky Republican U.S. Rep. Thomas Massie sends a clear message to Wyoming and the nation, both anti- and pro-Massie politicos told Cowboy State Daily on Wednesday.
The Wall Street Journal called it part of “Trump’s revenge campaign.”
Massie, a Libertarian-leaning Republican who urged the release of the Epstein files, opposed U.S. spending in Israel and voted no on a presidential darling, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, lost his primary election challenge Tuesday night to Navy SEAL veteran Ed Gallrein.
At more than $32 million in advertising spending, it was the most expensive U.S. Congressional race in the nation’s history. And Trump heckled Massie throughout.
Gallrein beat Massie by about 9 percentage points.
“It’s a very big sign that not only was Trump popular, but Trump is still popular,” said Wyoming state Rep. Landon Brown, R-Cheyenne, who is getting ready to retire from the state House after a decade’s tenure. “His voice and endorsements — and what I’ll call anti-endorsements — are a very big indication as to how the voting populace is going to continue to vote right now.”
That influence signals to Wyoming officeholders and candidates not to cross Trump, said Brown.
“I think it’s unfortunate that we have one person with that much power, that can make or break political careers,” Brown added. “Because I think Thomas Massie was one of the most liberty-minded people in Congress.”
Wyoming’s relationship with Trump only amplifies the president’s influence, said Brown.
The Cowboy State is the most pro-Trump in the union at 59% approval, worldpopulationreview.com reports.
“If you want to stay political, you don’t have a choice in the matter — except to back Donald Trump and support his policies,” Brown said.
The state’s lone U.S. House seat is up for grabs starting with the Aug. 18 partisan primary election and then the Nov. 2 general election. Ten GOP contenders have declared that they’re running.
Trump hasn’t publicly endorsed anyone in that race as of Wednesday, though multiple candidates have donned MAGA hats and distributed pro-Trump messaging.
The president in January endorsed state Superintendent of Public Instruction Megan Degenfelder for governor — three days before Degenfelder declared that she was running for the seat.
‘Goes Deeper Than That’
Bob Ferguson, Wyoming Republican Party vice-chair, told Cowboy State Daily he agrees that Massie’s loss equates to show of power by the president.
“But to tell you the truth, I think it goes deeper than that,” said Ferguson. “All the anti-Israel stuff, you know, I think is really more noise than anything.”
Massie voted against numerous Republican-backed measures and, in Ferguson’s view, “tried to be a thorn in the side of not just Trump, but you know, the agenda.”
Trump isn’t perfect on conservative issues, Ferguson acknowledged.
The president’s administration is defending the National Firearms Act in court. He banned firearm bump stocks, illegally, in his first term. He curried favor with some Democrats in January by announcing he wanted to ban institutional investors from buying more single-family homes.
But he’s highly effective and generally aligned with Republicans’ agenda, said Ferguson, adding that the war in Iran is an example of that.
“(We’re battling) this ideologically power with, you know, hatred essentially coming from the top of government and wishing death to America, death to Israel, all this stuff,” Ferguson said. “And I think Trump is the only one who had the guts to recognize normal diplomacy was not going to work with that regime.”
Support for Israel historically has been a mainstay of not only the GOP, but the Democratic party, he added.
Trump is also pro-energy, and like most of the Wyoming Legislature, generally falls onto the traditional side of social issues.
Ferguson said he doesn’t believe Trump would back a primary ouster for any minor nuisance, but that Massie’s opposition was pervasive and went too far.
As for Wyoming’s high-profile political candidates, Ferguson said, “I do think that Trump-vilification is … whatever the opposite of a golden ticket would be.”
‘These People Call ME A Democrat?’
Former state Sen. Anthony Bouchard is no Democrat.
He championed Wyoming’s stand-your-ground self-defense law into being. He spearheaded “Chloe’s Law” to ban child sex-change treatments.
And he’s on the anti-MAGA side of the rift Massie’s loss exposed in the conservative wing of the American political spectrum.
The results reveal Trump’s stranglehold on congressional Republicans, Bouchard told Cowboy State Daily in a Wednesday phone interview.
“Don’t step out of line,” he said, in a dour tone. “If you do, you’ll get the boot.”
Bouchard declined to call the MAGA-versus-Massie split a matter of populist republicanism versus libertarian-leaning republicanism.
Rather, he said, the MAGA movement contains many enthusiastic, but novice, loyalists who became political because of Trump’s strong personality, rather than conservative principles.
“These people get online and call me a Democrat?” said Bouchard. “Nobody knows me as a Democrat.”
But, he said, “we’ve got a lot of uninformed voters. I think that’s the problem.”
Regarding Wyoming, Bouchard said the threat of a $32 million showdown impacts the Cowboy State even more than races in other states, because Wyoming is such a small place with such familiarity between people and neighbors.
Looking In From The Outside
State Sen. Chris Rothfuss, D-Laramie, falls outside both factions of the now-bitterly-embattled GOP.
His outsider’s take on Massie’s coup is, “I think it shows the depth of control that Trump has over the Republican Party even now. Even despite the fact that there’s a decline in his overall polling and popularity.”
But outside of the intense involvement Trump ventured into the Massie race, it’s unclear what a simple endorsement means for Wyoming candidates, said Rothfuss.
Wyoming will know after the Aug. 18 primary election, he said.
It’s also unclear how much Trump plans to engage in Wyoming’s races.
“We’ll see how things play out in our primary — whether he engages in a meaningful way, or whether he just puts a stamp on it,” said Rothfuss.
Clair McFarland can be reached at clair@cowboystatedaily.com.
