Welcome to a special edition of At the Races! Throughout the 2026 primary season, watch for these updates from the CQ Roll Call campaign team on what you need to know for election day. Know someone who’d like to get this newsletter? They can subscribe here.
By Daniela Altimari and Mary Ellen McIntire
Tuesday marks a major day on the primary calendar, with important contests in Georgia, Pennsylvania and Alabama, among others.
But one of the cycle’s costliest – and perhaps most caustic – primaries is playing out in eastern Kentucky, where Republican Rep. Thomas Massie, a libertarian who has sparred with President Donald Trump over the release of the Epstein files, faces the president’s hand-picked challenger, farmer and former Navy SEAL Ed Gallrein.
The race has drawn an influx of outside spending, much of it from pro-Israel groups attacking Massie. Trump has beat a drumbeat for Gallrein, calling Massie “a lightweight” and a “totally ineffective loser,” and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth visited the district Monday to stump for Gallrein.
