A former Navy SEAL launched a Trump-backed Kentucky primary challenge against Massey

First on Fox — a former longtime Navy SEAL and fifth-generation Kentucky farmer who has the president’s support Donald Trump He announced his candidacy in the state’s 4th Congressional District on Tuesday as he challenges Republican Rep. Thomas Massey in next year’s GOP primary.

“I have dedicated my life to the service of my country and I am ready to answer the call again,” Ed Gallerin said in a statement first shared with Fox News Digital.

And Pointing to Macy’sGallerin, a frequent GOP critic of the president during his second term in the White House, asserted, “This district is Trump country. The president doesn’t need obstruction in Congress — he needs backup. I will defeat Thomas Massey, stand shoulder to shoulder with President Trump, and deliver the America First results that Kentuckians voted for.”

Trump praised Gallerin on social media, urged him to run and blasted Macy’s, four days into the campaign.

Maverick House Republicans blocked Trump’s attacks

Representative Thomas Massey, Republican of Kentucky, arrives for a news conference outside the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday, Sept. 3, 2025, in Washington, DC. (via Graeme Sloan/Bloomberg Getty Images)

Trump argued that Massey was a “third-rate congressman,” a “weak and pathetic RINO” and a “totally ineffective loser who failed us so badly.”

And the president praised Gallerin, calling him a “courageous combat veteran” and “highly successful businessman” who, if elected to Congress, “will fight tirelessly to secure our now highly secure border, stop immigrant crime, and protect our ever-beleaguered Second Amendment.”

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Trump’s Social media posts Includes a photo of himself and Gallerin wearing a red MAGA hat in the Oval Office.

Gallerin served in uniform for three decades and rose to the rank of captain. According to his campaign bio, he served multiple times on SEAL Team SIX, with deployments to Panama, Afghanistan and Iraq, earning four Bronze Stars and two Presidential Unit Citations.

Ed Gallerin, left, is seen in the Oval Office of the White House with President Donald Trump, Tuesday, launching his congressional bid to challenge Republican Rep. Thomas Massey, four days after Gallerin’s campaign was launched four days after Trump endorsed him and urged him to run. (Ad Gallerin Congress Campaign)

His campaign release also highlighted that “Gallery’s roots run deep in Kentucky.” He was born and raised in the state. And his family, which farmed for more than a century, built Kentucky’s largest dairy farm and Gallerin Grain Farms, one of the largest grain operations in the state.

Massey took aim at Gallerin after his social media endorsement of Trump, calling him a “failed candidate and establishment hack” as he pointed to Gallerin’s failed run for state Senate last year.

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“After being rejected by every elected official in the 4th District, Trump’s advisers clearly hit the panic button with their failed candidate selection and hacked Ed Gallerin’s establishment,” Massey said in a statement. Politico. “Ed has been begging them to pick him for over three months.”

Trump began targeting Massey for ouster earlier this year over the seven-term lawmaker’s opposition to the “One Big Beautiful Bill,” which passed the GOP-controlled Congress almost entirely on party lines earlier this summer. The GOP megalaw is the president’s major legislative achievement since returning to the White House.

Rep. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Green (R-GA) during a press conference with alleged victims of disgraced financier and sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein outside the US Capitol on September 3, 2025 in Washington, DC. Thomas Massey (R-KY) and Rep. Speaking with Ro Khanna (D-CA). (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

Massey, along with Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna of California, is leading the push to force a House vote to urge the release of Justice Department files on late-convicted sex-trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, which the White House and House GOP leaders oppose. Massey is on track to reach the 218 signatures needed to force a vote.

Two top Trump political advisers — 2024 co-campaign manager Chris LaCivita and pollster Tony Fabrizio — launched a super PAC in June aimed at defeating Massey. Nearly $2 million has already been spent running TV ads targeting Macy’s.

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But Macy’s has used attacks from Trump and his allies to boost fundraising, raising more than $750,000 in the past three months, the best ever. Fundraising Quarterly of his Congress career.

Massey’s district, located in the northeastern part of the state, includes the eastern suburbs of Louisville and the Kentucky suburbs of Cincinnati.