Rep. Thomas Massie banks career-best fundraising haul despite Trump forces trying to oust him

Rep. Thomas Massie is turning his defiance of President Trump into dollars. 

The Kentucky Republican raised more than $750,000 in the last three months — surpassing his previous best fundraising quarter since entering Congress by more than $100,000.

“A lot of times, candidates get tripped up when Trump endorses their opponents because they can’t raise money, that basically shuts off all the fuel to the engine of their campaign, and that is not the case with me,” Mr. Massie told The Washington Times.

Mr. Massie credits the surge in donations to Republican voters.

“Every time he’s attacked me, there has been a renewed wave of donations, and they’re not coming from Democrats,” he said. “They’re coming from Republicans, many of whom like Donald Trump and just want to see an independent voice in Congress.”

Due Oct. 15, Mr. Massie’s latest financials show him with more than $2 million in the bank. This puts him on solid footing in the 4th Congressional District, which stretches from the eastern suburbs of Louisville to the state’s northeastern border along the Ohio River.

Mr. Massie said three candidates have already filed paperwork to challenge him in the Republican primary, but Mr. Trump appears to be holding out for a handpicked contender.

A libertarian who prides himself on prioritizing ideology over pure partisanship, Mr. Massie has often charted his own course since his 2012 arrival on Capitol Hill, where he has clashed with party leaders.

He was one of only two Republicans to vote against Mr. Trump’s One Big, Beautiful Bill Act, warning it would deepen national debt and undercut efforts to curb inflation.

He’s also led a bipartisan push to compel House Speaker Mike Johnson to hold a vote on releasing government files related to deceased convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein — records Mr. Massie says he believes could include the names of Mr. Trump’s friends and donors.

Mr. Massie’s foreign policy positions have further alienated him from GOP orthodoxy.

A longstanding critic of military adventurism and taxpayer money being spent overseas, Mr. Massie has opposed U.S. financial aid to Israel and criticized its war in Gaza.

He condemned the Trump-approved air strike this year on Iran’s nuclear facilities as unconstitutional. He argued Iran posed “no imminent threat to the United States.”

Last year, he declined to attend Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s address to Congress, saying he refused to be a “prop” for the foreign leader.

These stances have drawn fire from Mr. Trump and his allies, including some of the party’s staunchest pro-Israel donors.

“MAGA should drop this pathetic LOSER, Tom Massie, like the plague!” Mr. Trump wrote on Truth Social earlier this year. “The good news is that we will have a wonderful American Patriot running against him in the Republican Primary, and I’ll be out in Kentucky campaigning really hard.”

Over the summer, the Trump team launched a MAGA KY super PAC tasked with making sure Mr. Massie does not survive his primary race.

The PAC, led by Trump strategists Tony Fabrizio and Chris LaCivita, has received at least $2 million in donations from prominent pro-Israel figures, including Paul Singer, Mariam Adelson’s Preserve America PAC, and John Paulson, whose name Mr. Massie noted appeared in one of Mr. Epstein’s contact lists.

Mr. LaCivita did not respond to a request for comment.

One of the group’s ads attacks his opposition to the Iran strike by placing his image alongside Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader, as well as Sen. Bernard Sanders of Vermont and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York.

“Let’s fire Thomas Massie,” the narrator says in an ad.

Mr. Massie is getting some of his own reinforcements.

A super PAC, Kentucky First, formed last month to support his reelection.

On Thursday, Mr. Massie told The Times that the weeks of “wall-to-wall” MAGA KY ads targeting him ended shortly after he barnstormed the state with Sen. Rand Paul, attracting standing-room-only crowds.  

“They have gone dark,” he said.

While still awaiting an official Trump-backed challenger, Mr. Massie said he is convinced the effort to unseat him is more about sending a message to other Republicans.

“They’re doing this to me to keep, you know, my buddies in line, but I’ve got broad shoulders, and I feel confident I’m going to win. And I think it’s important that I do win, so that everybody doesn’t just default to rubber stamps in Congress,” Mr. Massie said. “That’s really what, in my opinion, this race is about.”

• Kerry Pickett contributed to this report.