Thomas Massie refutes intention to vie for McConnell’s Senate seat in 2026

Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) denied he has plans to run for Sen. Mitch McConnell’s (R-KY) seat in 2026, confirming his intention to run for reelection to his House seat instead.

While a possible run for Senate would be years off, and Massie just won the 2024 Republican nomination for his House seat, McConnell’s February announcement that he would be retiring as the Republican Senate leader in November has opened speculation that he will not seek reelection in 2026.

Massie has recently been targeted in advertisements run by the United Democracy Project, a super PAC affiliated with the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, over his voting record in the House. Massie has generally opposed the U.S. giving out foreign aid, voting against a foreign aid package that gave funding to Israel, Taiwan, and Ukraine in April.

The super PAC invested in a $300,000 TV ad spending buy against Massie, according to Jewish Insider.

AIPAC has said it was “shining a spotlight on his atrocious anti-Israel record” in a post on X.

Massie quipped the spending against him sounded like an “invitation to run for Senate,” saying the advertisements AIPAC was running would only serve to raise his name recognition in the state.

“It’s going to elevate my name ID, and two years from now, nobody’s gonna remember what the ads were about,” Massie told the Washington Examiner while in attendance at the Libertarian National Convention. “So, thank you, AIPAC.”

Massie defeated two Republican rivals in Kentucky’s GOP primary on Tuesday easily, despite recently bucking leadership to join Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s (R-GA) effort to oust House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) from his leadership role.

Massie told the Washington Examiner that he does not currently have any plans to continue pursuing the ousting of Johnson after a vote to do so failed on that House floor on May 8.

However, he said that if he “woke up tomorrow and Mike Johnson resigned, it’d be one of the best days of [his] life.”

The Kentucky Republican also was one of the few House members to back Gov. Ron DeSantis’s (R-FL) 2024 presidential run over former President Donald Trump.