Former Navy SEAL launches Trump-backed Kentucky primary challenge against Massie

First on Fox — A former longtime Navy SEAL and fifth-generation Kentucky farmer supported by President Donald Trump on Tuesday announced his candidacy in the state’s 4th Congressional District, where he will challenge Republican Rep. Thomas Massie in next year’s GOP primary.

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

Referring to Massie, a frequent GOP critic of the president during his second term in the White House, Gallerin asserted, “This district is Trump country. The president doesn’t need hurdles in congress — he needs support. I will defeat Thomas Massie, stand shoulder to shoulder with President Trump, and deliver the America First results that Kentuckians voted for.”

The campaign launch comes four days after Trump took to social media to praise Gallerin, urge him to run, and attack Massie.

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Trump argued that Massie was a “third-rate congressman,” a “weak, pathetic Reno,” and a “completely ineffective loser who has let us down badly.”

The president praised Gallerin as a “courageous veteran” and “a highly successful businessman” who, if elected to Congress, “will fight tirelessly to keep our now highly secure border secure, stop immigrant crime, and defend our perpetual siege (Second Amendment).”

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Trump’s social media post included a photo of him and Gallerin holding red MAGA hats in the Oval Office.

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

Ed Galrean, left, seen with President Donald Trump in the Oval Office of the White House, on Tuesday launched a congressional bid to challenge Republican Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky. Galrean’s campaign launch comes four days after Trump endorsed him and urged him to run. (Ed Gallerin’s campaign for Congress)

His campaign statement also highlighted that Galren’s “roots run deep in Kentucky.” He was born and raised in the state. His family, who has farmed for more than a century, built Kentucky’s largest dairy farm and Galrin Grain Farms, one of the largest grain operations in the state.

Massey targeted Gallerin after endorsing Trump on social media, calling him a “failed candidate and establishment infiltrator,” and also pointed to Gallerin’s unsuccessful run last year for state Senate.

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“After being rejected by every elected official in the 4th District, it is clear that Trump’s advisors hit the panic button with their selection of failed nominee and establishment hack Ed Gallerin,” Massie said in a statement to Politico. “Ed has been begging them to choose him for over three months.”

Trump began targeting Massie for ouster earlier this year over the seven-term lawmaker’s opposition to “one big, beautiful bill,” which the GOP-controlled Congress passed in early summer almost entirely along party lines. The GOP sweeping law is the president’s major legislative accomplishment since returning to the White House.

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) speaks with Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) and Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) during a news conference with alleged victims of disgraced financier and sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein outside the U.S. Capitol on September 3, 2025, in Washington, DC. (Chip Somodevila/Getty Images)

Massie is also leading the charge, along with Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna of California, to force a vote in the House to urge the release of Justice Department files on the late convicted sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, a move the White House and House GOP leaders aim to counter. Massie is on pace to reach the 218 signatures needed to force a vote.

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

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But Massie has used attacks from Trump and his allies to boost his fundraising, raising more than $750,000 over the past three months, the best fundraising quarter of his congressional career.

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