发布时间：2026年2月7日，美国东部时间凌晨5:00 | 来源：CNN
作者：劳伦·福克斯、莎拉·费里斯
发布时间：3小时前
肯塔基州可能是美国最后一个你可以作为强硬右翼共和党人挑战唐纳德·特朗普总统，同时在国会持有共和党选民卡的地方。至少目前是这样。
一对来自肯塔基州的“刺耳”叛逆者——众议员托马斯·马西和参议员兰德·保罗——正联手捍卫马西，这是他政治生涯中最大的一场战斗，因为特朗普正加大力度在明年将这位七届共和党人赶出华盛顿。
马西在肯塔基州东北部的一场激烈共和党初选中，面临着特朗普政治运作的全部力量。MAGA世界已投入数百万美元支持总统青睐的候选人、前海军海豹突击队员埃德·加尔林。马西和他的盟友认为，这不是一场普通的竞选——这是试图压制总统在国会中剩余的批评者。
“我认为这是他们攻击我并在我的竞选中投入大量资金的原因之一，是为了让其他人听话，到目前为止，这似乎奏效了，”马西在最近接受CNN采访时表示。“我只是认为总统和他身边的人施加了太多政治压力，他们无法承受。”
自众议院多数席位缩小至仅一票以来，总统的攻击只会加剧——这让马西在这个难以驾驭的众议院中拥有了巨大的权力。上周，特朗普亲自用粗俗的言论攻击马西最近的婚姻，甚至在国家祈祷早餐会上称他为“白痴”。（保罗的回应是？“这听起来对我来说不太慈善。”）
到目前为止，保罗似乎是唯一一位国会共和党人，在有人认为这是特朗普之前茶党财政克制和小政府品牌的最后遗迹的情况下，他正试图帮助马西坚持下去。这位肯塔基州参议员告诉CNN，他计划在今年春天的5月初选前与马西一起竞选几天，此前去年秋天有过其他联合活动。马西告诉CNN，他在竞选活动中得到的唯一其他帮助是前众议员玛乔丽·泰勒·格林，她上个月在特朗普多次抨击她后离开了国会。
就连议长迈克·约翰逊也告诉CNN，他不承诺支持马西，这对一位在任的党内领袖来说是一个惊人的举动。
“我通常在这里运行现任议员保护计划。但这必须是一种合作。我必须和托马斯谈谈，看看他是否想加入团队，”约翰逊在被问及是否会在初选中支持马西时告诉CNN。“请关注后续消息。”
在如今的共和党中，对马西的支持已成为一种政治试金石。这包括在肯塔基州激烈的三人参议院初选中，其中一位候选人、共和党众议员安迪·巴尔正式支持马西的对手，以争取特朗普在他自己竞选中的支持。（巴尔的一位对手内特·莫里斯很快也效仿了。）
上周，特朗普还在佐治亚州的一次补选中支持了一位反对MAGA强硬派的候选人，而这位候选人一直支持马西。
但马西仍然毫不动摇。他和保罗都不愿意像他的许多同事为了挽救自己的政治生涯而进行的那种MAGA世界道歉之旅。保罗告诉CNN，他认为特朗普的一些攻击——包括针对马西的妻子（她曾是保罗的工作人员）——会在初选中适得其反。（马西于2024年年中丧偶，最近再婚。）
“我认为很多家乡的人都认为攻击托马斯·马西的妻子是不合适的，”保罗告诉CNN。“人们正在团结在他身边，因为他们谈论他仓促的婚礼，‘哦，她比他年轻得多’……我认为他们的反应会与总统的预期相反。”
保罗认为马西能够抵御挑战，他指出马西在该地区很受欢迎，但补充道：“让自己党内的总统做这样的事并不容易。”
特朗普及其盟友威胁要在这场战斗中花费数千万美元。尽管如此，即使是华盛顿的一些资深共和党人也怀疑特朗普的机器能否击败马西。
马西所在的选区——从路易斯维尔郊区的外围延伸到辛辛那提郊区，一直到阿巴拉契亚山脉的边缘——包括大片农田和具有自由意志主义倾向的选民。特朗普在2024年以67%的选票赢得该地区，而马西在大选中无人竞争。
该州众议员史蒂夫·多恩（马西的盟友）告诉CNN，他相信马西仍然会获胜。
“我总是把这场竞选描述为爸爸妈妈在打架。我们爱特朗普，我们也爱托马斯。这是一场华盛顿的斗争，不是肯塔基州的斗争，”多恩说。
“要让这个一直投票支持特朗普和马西的地区的人们相信，一个将继续投票支持乌克兰对外援助和救助以及浪费性支出的林赛·格雷厄姆捐赠者会比托马斯·马西更适合华盛顿特区，这将非常困难，”他继续说道。
加尔林竞选团队反驳说，马西是“反特朗普”的，在关键问题上与民主党人投票一致，而他们的候选人有总统的支持。
“埃德·加尔林得到了在该地区以35个百分点获胜的特朗普总统的支持。仅此一点就表明托马斯·马西与肯塔基州第4选区完全不同，”竞选发言人兰斯·特罗弗说。
就他而言，马西最近几周只是加强了对总统的反对，支持调查杰弗里·爱泼斯坦，而特朗普试图阻止这一调查，同时支持限制总统海外权力的民主党措施。
除了保罗，没有其他共和党人如此频繁和公开地投票反对特朗普的优先事项。
马西和保罗都公开批评特朗普在政府资金等问题上的做法，上个月投票反对国会的大规模支出方案。他们反对他在伊朗和委内瑞拉的行动，并且是去年为数不多的反对他大规模减税和移民执法方案的共和党人之一。（唯一另一位反对特朗普大规模政策法案的共和党人是温和派众议员布莱恩·菲茨帕特里克，他代表众议院中最蓝的席位之一。）
马西的对手加尔林也是一位当地农民，他明确将自己的竞选活动定位为对特朗普忠诚的公投。在他最近的广告中，加尔林将自己描绘成“特朗普精心挑选的人选”。
但尽管马西的独立品牌在第四选区受到推崇，在华盛顿，他所在的国会代表团成员承认，马西的反对立场正在给党内领导人带来麻烦。
“我认为让来自肯塔基州的共和党人对马西感到沮丧的是，他总是发推说其他共和党人的负面言论，而不仅仅是针对特朗普。……我们都在努力合作，帮助这个州和总统取得成功，而我们却经常受到马西推特粉丝的抨击，”肯塔基州另一位共和党众议员、强大的众议院监督委员会主席詹姆斯·科默表示。
该州另一位共和党人布雷特·格思里哀叹道，问题不在于立法者必须遵守总统的每一个心血来潮，而是马西很少能被指望支持特朗普的任何优先事项。
“我认为人们有不同意见……但托马斯几乎总是在反对，”格思里说。
自约翰逊的多数席位降至历史低点以来，马西对自己自由意志主义倾向的坚持变得更加尖锐。
上周在一项为政府提供资金的投票中，约翰逊不能在程序性规则投票中再失去一名共和党人，但领导层的运作却好像他们不能失去任何人，因为他们知道马西已经是他们的“敌人”。
就他而言，马西对自己坚定坚持信仰毫无歉意，当受到特朗普挑战时也不退缩。在周四的祈祷早餐会后，马西发推称：“美国总统今天早上在国家祈祷早餐会上称我为白痴，因为我仍在为他对美国人民的承诺而奋斗。”
当被问及周四通过短信对总统攻击是否有其他评论时，马西只补充道：“我很幸运知道我在特朗普的祈祷中。”
CNN的卡米拉·德查卢斯对此报道亦有贡献。
A defiant Thomas Massie takes on the MAGA machine in heated Kentucky primary
Published Feb 7, 2026, 5:00 AM ET | Source: CNN
By Lauren Fox, Sarah Ferris
3 hr ago
Kentucky may be the last place in America where you can take on President Donald Trump as a hard-right Republican and carry a GOP voting card in Congress. At least for now.
A pair of twangy Kentucky rebels – Rep. Thomas Massie and Sen. Rand Paul – are teaming up to defend Massie in the biggest fight of his political career as Trump intensifies efforts to oust the seven-term Republican from Washington next year.
Massie is facing the full might of Trump’s political operation in a nasty GOP primary in northeast Kentucky, where MAGA world has poured millions to support the president’s preferred candidate, former Navy SEAL Ed Gallrein. And Massie and his allies argue it’s no ordinary race – it’s an attempt to silence the president’s remaining critics in Congress.
“I think that’s one of the reasons they’re attacking me and putting so much money into my race, is to keep the others in line, and so far, it’s working,” Massie told CNN in a recent interview. “I just think there’s so much political pressure from the president and the people surrounding him that they can’t withstand it.”
The attacks from the president have only intensified since the House margins have narrowed to just a single vote – giving Massie outsized power in the fractious chamber. In the last week, Trump personally went after Massie with crass comments about his recent marriage and even made a swipe at the National Prayer Breakfast calling him a “moron.” (Paul’s response? “Doesn’t sound very charitable to me.”)
So far, Paul seems to be the only congressional Republican working to help Massie hang on in what some consider the last vestige of the pre-Trump Tea Party brand of fiscal restraint and hands-off government. The Kentucky senator told CNN he plans to campaign with him for several days this spring ahead of the May primary, after other joint events last fall. Massie told CNN the only other help on the stump he’s been offered is former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, who left Congress last month after Trump’s repeated tirades against her.
Even Speaker Mike Johnson told CNN that he is not committed to backing Massie, a stunning move for a sitting party leader.
“I generally run the incumbent protection program here. But it’s gotta be a cooperation. I gotta have a conversation with Thomas to see if he wants to be on the team,” Johnson told CNN when asked if he would back Massie in the primary. “Stay tuned on that.”
In today’s GOP, support for Massie has become its own kind of political litmus test. That includes in Kentucky’s heated three-way Senate primary, where one of those contenders, GOP Rep. Andy Barr, formally endorsed Massie’s opponent in a bid for Trump’s support in his own race. (One of Barr’s opponents, Nate Morris, quickly followed.)
And last week, Trump endorsed against a MAGA hardliner in a special election in Georgia who has been supportive of Massie.
But Massie remains undeterred. Both he and Paul remain unwilling to engage in the kind of MAGA-world apology tour that many of his colleagues have unfurled to save their own political careers. And Paul told CNN that he believed some of Trump’s attacks – including against Massie’s wife, who is a former Paul staffer – would backfire in the primary. (Massie was widowed in mid-2024 and recently remarried.)
Rep. Thomas Massie arrives for a House vote on February 3.
Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images
“I think a lot of people at home are seeing the attacks on Thomas Massie’s wife as being unseemly,” Paul told CNN. “People are rallying around him because to talk about his hurried wedding, and, ‘Oh, she’s much younger than him.’ … I think they’re going to react the opposite to what the president thinks.”
Paul believes that Massie can fend off the challenge, pointing to his popularity in the district but added: “It’s not easy to have a president of your own party do that.”
Trump and his allies have threatened to spend tens of millions of dollars in the fight. Still, even some senior Republicans in Washington remain doubtful that Trump’s machine can defeat Massie.
Massie’s district – which runs from the outer bands of the Louisville suburbs, up north to the suburbs of Cincinnati all the way to the outskirts of Appalachia – includes vast swaths of farmland and voters with a libertarian streak. Trump won there with 67% of the vote in 2024 and Massie ran in the general uncontested.
State Rep. Steve Doan, an ally of the congressman, told CNN he believed Massie would still prevail.
“I always frame this race as mommy and daddy are fighting. We love Trump and we love Thomas. It is a DC fight. It is not a Kentucky fight,” Doan said.
“It’s going to be really hard to convince the people of this district who have consistently voted for Trump and Massie that a Lindsey Graham donor who is going to continue to vote for foreign aid in Ukraine and bailouts and wasteful spending is going to be a better fit in Washington, DC, than Thomas Massie,” he continued.
The Gallrein campaign shot back that Massie is “anti-Trump” and votes with Democrats on key issues, while their candidate has the president’s endorsement.
“Ed Gallrein is endorsed by President Trump who won the district by 35 points. That alone shows Thomas Massie is nowhere close to in line with KY04,” campaign spokesman Lance Trover said.
For his part, Massie has only dug in against the president in recent weeks, championing the probe into Jeffrey Epstein that Trump sought to kill while supporting Democratic measures to rein in the president’s powers abroad.
Rep. Thomas Massie shakes the hand of Sen. Rand Paul after Paul spoke about him during Massie’s campaign stop at the Jeptha Creed Distillery in Shelbyville, Kentucky, on September 25, 2025.
Matt Stone/Courier Journal/USA Today Network/Imagn
No other Republican, besides perhaps Paul, has so often, and so publicly, voted against a Trump priority.
Both Massie and Paul have openly criticized Trump on issues like government funding, voting against Congress’ massive spending package last month. They’ve opposed his actions in Iran and Venezuela and the two were some of the only GOP votes against his massive tax breaks and immigration enforcement package last year. (The only other Republican to oppose Trump’s massive policy bill was centrist Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, who represents one of his party’s bluest seats in the House.)
Massie’s opponent, Gallrein, who is also a local farmer, has explicitly framed his campaign as a referendum on loyalty to Trump. In his most recent ad, Gallrein depicts himself as “Trump’s handpicked choice.”
But as much as Massie’s brand of independence may be revered in the 4th District, in Washington, members of his own congressional delegation acknowledge that Massie’s streak of opposition is creating headaches for party leaders.
“I think the thing that makes the Republicans from Kentucky frustrated with Massie is he is always tweeting like negative stuff about other Republicans, not just Trump. … We are all trying to work together to help the state and help the president be successful and we take a lot of incoming from Massie’s Twitter followers a lot,” said Rep. James Comer, another Kentucky Republican and chairman of the powerful House Oversight Committee.
Rep. Brett Guthrie, another Republican in the state, lamented it’s not that lawmakers must adhere to the president’s every whim, but that Massie can seldom be counted on for any of Trump’s priorities.
“I think people have disagreed … but Thomas has disagreed almost a lot,” Guthrie said.
Massie’s adherence to his own libertarian streak has become even more acute since Johnson has seen his majority dwindle to historic lows.
Last week during a vote to fund the government, Johnson couldn’t afford to lose more than a single Republican on a procedural rule vote, but leadership was operating as if they couldn’t lose anyone because they knew they’d already lost Massie.
For his part, Massie makes no apologies about his rigid adherence to his beliefs nor does he back down when challenged by Trump. After the prayer breakfast Thursday, Massie tweeted, “The President of the United States called me a moron at the National Prayer Breakfast this morning because I’m still fighting for what he promised the American people.”
Asked if he had any other comment to the president’s attacks via text Thursday, Massie added only: “I feel blessed to know I’m in Trump’s prayers.”
CNN’s Camila DeChalus contributed to this report.
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