The Rachel Maddow Show 5/19/2026 [NEW] | MSNBC Breaking News Today May 19 2026

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[00:00:00]right now. He defeated Thomas Massie. He had to spend a enormous amount of money.

[00:00:05]His advisers are probably all telling him, "You're so great. Look at you." And also, you won the Indiana races. But what that also does is that means he just thinks he's a winner. Totally.

[00:00:15]>> He thinks that he is crushing it and that he's still as powerful as he was.

[00:00:19]And this is not the electorate that's voting in November.

[00:00:21]>> No. And it's, you know, he keeps being obsessed with like that one moment where where I think CNN showed some poll of like people who consider them, you know, diehard MAGA are 100% behind him and he's obsessed with that, which is sort of like tological. Um, that is who he that's who he's his audience is now >> and that's all he cares about. Um, and that but you know, elections uh are not that's not the only people that matter.

[00:00:46]So, we'll see.

[00:00:47]>> No, it it's all right. It's It's not at all the electorate that is going to be voting in all these states in a couple of months. So, may he just stay in his narrow little prism where everybody tells him he's a good boy. We'll see.

[00:00:58]We'll see if that happens. Anyway, we'll keep covering it. It was great to see you in DC earlier today, too.

[00:01:02]>> Yeah.

[00:01:04]>> Okay. Uh, as you all know, cuz you just maybe you were watching, maybe you've been clicking on blue sky or wherever you're looking. It is a big election night in six states where voters cast their ballots in a bunch a bunch of key primary races. We're following all of them. Polls have now closed in most of those states. Results are coming in.

[00:01:24]They're they've been coming in. They're going to keep coming in. We're going to keep bringing you updates. And there are a lot of important races that we're following tonight. I'm going to go through a bunch of them here so you know what we're tracking. In Georgia, three Republicans have been locked in a bitter primary battle to see who will run against incumbent Senator John Oaf. And remember, John Oaf, he he is one of the most, if not the most, heavily targeted Democratic incumbents on the ballot this year. And we're going to learn at least more tonight about who he may face in November. We're also following the results from both the Democratic and Republican primaries in Georgia's crucial race for governor. Also in Georgia, we're getting results from the two hotly contested races for seats on the state supreme court after two liberalbacked candidates received very big endorsements from former President Barack Obama and former Vice President Kla Harris. But the most closely watched race tonight was probably the Republican primary for Kucky's fourth congressional district where Donald Trump and his billionaire allies waged a quite a retribution campaign to unseat conservative incong incumbent Congressman Thomas Massie. And tonight, the Associated Press projects that Trump backed challenger Ed Galin has defeated Thomas Massie in that primary. Nearly $33 million, I should note, was spent in that race, making it the most expensive congressional primary race in history.

[00:02:50]Donald Trump was so determined to oust Massie, he personally attacked him multiple times on True Social, just in the last few days at events and on X, calling him things like the worst congressman and a rhino and and urging voters repeatedly to replace him. He even dispatched his secretary of defense Pete Hexath to campaign for Massiey's opponent, of course, while the country is in the middle of a war. The point is this. It's clear that Trump really, really, really wanted Thomas Massie out of office. And tonight, after his backers spent millions and he had his used his own bully pulpit over and over again to attack Massie, he succeeded.

[00:03:33]So, why did Trump spend so much energy to defeat a conservative congressman in this Republican primary? Well, I think Thomas Massie actually said it best himself.

[00:03:44]>> I vote with Republicans 91% of the time.

[00:03:47]>> And the 9% I don't, they're taking up for pedophiles, starting another war, or bankrupting our country.

[00:03:54]>> That about says it all. Thomas Pazi is one of the most conservative members of Congress, but he has refused to stick by Donald Trump on two fundamental issues, big, very big ones this year, where Trump has betrayed his own MAGA base. I mean, Massie co-sponsored the resolution that forced the release of the Epstein files. And he's been a vocal critic of the administration's efforts to cover them up. You see him there on the screen with a bunch of survivors. And he's also opposed Trump's war with Iran and even co-sponsored the War Powers Resolution to end that war. Tonight, in his concession speech, Massie touted his work on exposing Epstein's enablers and co-conspirators and hinted that there may be more to come.

[00:04:34]>> We need basic decency. That's what the Epstein Files Transparency Act was all about. By the way, today is the six-month anniversary of the Epstein Files Transparency Act. We've taken out two dozen CEOs, an ambassador, a prince, a prime minister, a minister of culture.

[00:05:00]>> Thank you.

[00:05:01]>> And that was just six months. I got seven months left in Congress.

[00:05:10]>> That guy does not seem to be slinking away. He almost seemed gleeful about the seven months he has left in Congress to do a lot more on that particular issue.

[00:05:18]So yeah, I mean the guy has been a very loyal conservative on nearly every issue. I probably disagree with him on a lot of policy issues, a whole host of them, maybe the majority. He's also been a huge thorn in the side of Trump. And that is why Trump wanted Massie out of office. So for Donald Trump, tonight's primary is supposed to be all about loyalty. I mean, he wants to show that Republicans who are not unflinchingly loyal to him and his administration will pay a price. That's what it's about.

[00:05:45]He's already ousted Republican Senator Bill Cassidy for his heretical vote to convict Trump over January 6th. And he did the same to several Indiana state lawmakers who bucked his agenda on redistricting.

[00:05:57]The message is supposed to be that the only way to stay in Trump's good graces is by showering him with praise, supporting whatever he does, and telling him he's just amazing all around. But here's the thing, doesn't actually always work like that with Trump. Now, don't get me wrong, Republicans who oppose Trump will probably wind up facing some mean tweets and a Trump endorsed primary opponent and maybe millions spent against them. Just ask Thomas Massie. But Republicans who stay loyal to Trump don't always get rewarded for their so-called good behavior either. I mean, just consider the case of Texas Senator John Cornin, who has embarrassed himself over and over again trying to stay in Trump's good graces.

[00:06:36]In the Senate, Cornin votes with Trump, Donald Trump, 99% of the time, even more than his fellow Texas Senator Ted Cruz.

[00:06:44]He posts cringy photos of himself on social media. You see there, there's the one on your screen. That's him reading Trump's book, just hoping that Trump will notice him and tell him he's a good boy. Now, this year, Cornin even introduced a bill to rename a highway after Donald Trump. But none of that, none of that seemed to matter to Donald Trump because despite all of that, Trump announced just today that he will endorse John Cornin's primary opponent, Ken Paxton, in the Texas Republican Senate runoff next week. and Trump made that decision despite all of Cornin's humiliating attempts to suck up to him.

[00:07:21]And despite the fact that Ken Paxton is a deeply flawed candidate, I mean, this guy has spent years under a massive cloud of indictments, impeachment, whistleblower allegations, repeated allegations of misconduct, and abuse of office. And that doesn't even touch on the allegations of adultery from his former wife, who filed for divorce on what she called biblical grounds. So yeah, that guy Trump just endorsed, well, he might have a harder time holding on to that seat. And that's why Senate Republicans spent months trying to convince Trump to back Cornin and why they're now reportedly livid about Trump's decision. I mean, after Trump's endorsement, Senator Lindsey Graham told reporters that he thinks the Texas Senate race will cost Republicans three times as much money with Ken Paxton as their nominee. And that's money that Republicans won't be able to spend in other races, like say defending Ohio Senator and Trump loyalist John Houston in his race against former Senator Shared Brown, or defending Alaska Senator and Trump loyalist Dan Sullivan in his race against Mary Pollah.

[00:08:24]Trump isn't just betraying John Cornin.

[00:08:27]He seems to be betraying all of his loyal, spineless supporters in the Senate. What Trump has demonstrated tonight is that no amount of loyalty can save you from Trump's impetuous decisions. Republicans can choose to stand up to Trump or worship the ground he walks on, but nothing will save them from the chaotic whim whims of a mad king. All right, let's get straight to MS now chief data reporter Ally Veli who's at the big board. He's been there all night. Okay, Ally, we know Thomas Massie lost, but tell us tell us what happened in Kentucky tonight. Yeah, lots of stories uh where we're covering very closely in Pennsylvania, Kentucky, Georgia, Alabama, Idaho, and Oregon. But let's let's go to Kentucky. Very interesting night. Uh this is the first district in Kentucky. That's James Comr.

[00:09:11]He's an incumbent, as you'd expect. He's been called with 81% 62% of the votes in, but he's got 88% of the vote over there. But that's Kentucky 1. Let's go to Kentucky 4, which is the one you've been talking about. We now have 96% of the vote in. And com uh Thomas Massiey's losing by about 10%. in this district.

[00:09:31]In fact, if you go down to the county level, you see the three most populous counties, which are in, you know, the Cincinnati area, uh, counties. Uh, Boone County, which is where Pete Hgsith went on behalf of Donald Trump. They say that he went on behalf of himself, but Pete Hexith went to campaign for Ed Galrin, who is the Trump emphorsed candidate. Uh, 10% gain with 99% of the vote. And Gal Rein's ahead by 10%. In Kenton County, uh, again, 52 to 47. It's a little bit closer there. In Campbell County, the third most populous county, again, within five points, but Galrine winning over there. And then one of the other more popular c populous counties on the western side of the state near Louisville, 89% of the vote in again, 5247. So, it it's pretty decisive.

[00:10:17]That's done. Ed Galin is the is the winner in there. But, there are a number of uh other places that are kind of interesting to watch. If you look at Georgia, there's an interesting vote going on in Georgia. It is a state supreme court vote. Take a look at this.

[00:10:31]There are two of them. In one of them, this this is this is nonpartisan, but the the the person in blue purple here is the liberal. Uh the person in the orange color is is is uh is the conservative. The conservative being called uh Sarah Warren in one of the two seats. But take a look at the other seat uh which is much closer. 43% of the vote is in.

[00:10:52]Miracle Rankin, the the more liberal candidate, is uh is is behind by 80,000 votes. But take a look at this. Fulton County, which is the most populous county, it's it's it splits Atlanta. Uh no votes in in Fulton County yet. We've just found out that Fulton will come in probably no earlier than 11%. If you look at all the races in uh in Georgia right now, you'll see that Fulton is not in. So, we're going to see how that changes. And what you might see in that state supreme court race is the the liberal pulling ahead. Uh again, if I if I go to the whole state and I look at the GOP primary, uh Bert Jones, who is the Trump endorsed candidate, is advancing to the primary against Rick Jackson, none of them getting 50% of the vote. Take a look at Brad Brad Raffensburgger. He's way behind. Uh coming in a very, very distant third. On the Democratic side, the Democratic gubernatorial candidate, again, 41% of the vote is in, not enough to call it.

[00:11:46]Uh Kesha Lance Bottoms is well ahead of all her other uh competitors. Her lead is 230,000. She's a former mayor of uh Atlanta. She's at 60%. Her closest competitor is at 14.4%. Again, the Associated Press has made a decision based on information they're getting that it's too early to call that. But take a look at this. Once again, like everywhere else in Georgia, there are zero votes in from Fulton County. There was a shooting in the county earlier today. So, they've delayed voting by 4 hours. As a result, we will not start getting numbers uh there until 11 p.m., but that'll make a couple of the races pretty decisive. One final thing I wanted to tell you about uh going out to Pennsylvania where there was elections as well tonight. The guminatorial uh race there, the GOP primary has been won by Stacy Gity. She was uncontested, but there was this movement to write Doug Mastriano in. You remember Doug Mastriano >> ran for Senate, lost by more than 20 points, but he's as MAGA as they get.

[00:12:41]remember he went to Arizona to try and figure out how those ninja people were figuring out their election. So interesting case here. Uh Josh Shapiro obviously is the Democratic candidate.

[00:12:51]Not only very popular, but Josh Shapiro gets a lot of Republican support in that state as well, but there was some little movement on the rep Republican side to see if Mastriano would run. Republicans in Pennsylvania have decided to run still a MAGA candidate, but a a slightly more moderate version of one. I don't think it's going to change the math in Pennsylvania all that much in the end, though.

[00:13:13]>> So many races we're watching. We're coming back to you, Ally, in a little bit to check in and see where some of these races are developing. The Georgia State Supreme Court are really interesting if I'm if I'm correct here.

[00:13:22]I think one hasn't one of those hasn't flipped in like a hundred years, but it would be a very big deal if one did. So, we'll keep watching that. But, thank you for everything you do. We'll be back to check in on your data. We love some data. Okay. Joining me now are two of my favorite people to talk to on a big election night about politics and all the things. Tim Miller is of course the host of the Bullwark podcast. Jim and Msina was campaign manager for Barack Obama's 2012 re-election campaign. Okay, so obviously there are a ton of primaries going on. We're going to track them all as we get results. If we get them while we're talking, we'll we'll talk about those two. But let's just start with Kentucky. Um Jim, let me go to you first. What do you make of Massiey's defeat? What should people take away from that?

[00:14:07]Oh, Jim, you may be unmuted.

[00:14:10]>> Let's see if you can Oh, go ahead. There we go. Technology.

[00:14:12]>> Donald Trump runs the modern Republican party, Jen. For better or for worse, that you know, here's a guy who has a 99% voting record with Donald Trump and yet they still take him out because of the Epstein stuff and because he fought with him on war powers. You know, the problem is when you own the party, the the party then owns you. And in these swing races that Tim and I are looking at so closely, Donald Trump's numbers, Jen, have just fallen through the floor.

[00:14:39]He carried non-ol white voters by 36 points. He's now eight points underwater. You just don't see movement like that. So coming into November, these candidates are Republican candidates are just in a terrible place because they have to continue to show the field to you talked about so eloquently earlier and yet try to reach out to these independent voters that are walking away from Donald Trump in almost historic numbers. That is a that is a dance on a knife's edge that they are unlikely to be able to do in November.

[00:15:13]>> Yeah. I mean the elector I was talking to Chris a little bit about this. the electorate is very different from that district from what the electorate will be in November. It still does show Trump has power among his core base. Let me ask you um Tim just about the money aspect of this because I mean this was the most expensive House race in history. $33 million was spent a lot by outside groups um a I mean a pack there's a lot of different groups that were spending money here. I should say it's in one on one sense if you're a billionaire I guess it could tell you well we could spend a lot of money and we can buy races on Trump's behalf but resources aren't unlimited. What do you think kind of this means for the rest of the field or as we look at the big um map uh leading up to November?

[00:15:56]>> Yeah. Um well look I think it's pretty telling. I agree with Jim about his assessment of you know what this augers for the general election which is not great uh for for the party. Uh, but I I kind of have a slightly different take about what we learned from the Massie result tonight. Uh, I mean, the last I looked it was 83% of the vote was in. He had about 45%.

[00:16:18]Um, that's pretty good for somebody that bucked Trump directly and consistently and unapologetically on a couple of core issues being being Epstein and Iran. We don't really have another example of something like this in the last 10 years with Trump. And you have Liz Cheney that votes to impeach Trump and then becomes a major Trump critic and then she kind of runs a quick sodic campaign in in Wyoming where she gets absolutely slaughtered. Uh most of the people that step out from Trump then resign from Congress or the Senate and don't go back in front of the voters. Um you have people like Cassidy who will buck Trump and then pretend like they loved him all along and go back in front of the V, you know, like go back into his good graces. Massie was a kind of a unique case where he bucked Trump can held the line on his position on him ran a real race and he loses by 10% which isn't you know it's not that close but it's not nothing with with the most money ever spent in a p in a congressional primary going against him and you mentioned a lot of that was from Apac. There were other groups as well other MAGA groups. To me that shows Trump with a like a little bit of a weakening grasp on the party. Not that it's over. Not that the party's no longer a Trump cult, but I think it's a meaningful step in a direction away from Trump's control of the party and shows that maybe his grasp is weakening a little bit.

[00:17:40]>> Yeah, that's an interesting thank you for giving us a little uplift there. But I mean, it's true. They spent so that's a huge amount of money in a House district um to have spent against him and we shouldn't minimize that. I want to talk I've been dying to talk to you both about Texas because obviously the primary is not coming up in Texas until next week, but today I mean this could have been a day where Trump where the guy Trump wanted to win defeated Thomas Massie and that would have been the political news I guess and instead he endorsed Ken Paxton and the Senate is basically pissed off at him. Jim, what do you why did he endorse Paxton? What is this all about? What's your take on it?

[00:18:16]>> Uh I think two things. one, he thinks Paxton's going to win the primary and he wants to be on the right side. Um, and two, you know, he's been long criticizing John Cornin for being a rhino and for being too close uh to the Democrats. That would be a very big surprise to any Democrat who's dealt with John Cornin. John Cornin's voting percentage with Donald Trump was 99.2, Jen. So, you know, I don't think he's exactly a rhino. Um, but what I think it means, back to your money point, is this this race is going to be another hundred million dollars. the Republicans are going to have to put in to try to help uh Ken Paxton in the general election.

[00:18:53]And I know they have a lot of money, but when you spend $32 million to beat Massie and now you're going to have to spend $und00 million to protect a state where the Republicans haven't lost a statewide election since 1994.

[00:19:06]At some point, this just becomes math and it becomes really hard to protect all these incumbents. some of the races you talked about earlier in Alaska, in Ohio, their seat in Iowa, their seat in North Carolina. There's just not enough money if you're going to spend $100 million in the great state of Texas.

[00:19:25]>> Tim, I mean, we heard from Lindsey Graham and a bunch of people in the Senate who seem pretty irritated about this endorsement and the money that would be spent and how much money would have to be spent to get Ken Paxton over the finish line if even they can do it.

[00:19:40]There's been this theory that it's easier for Telerico to run against Paxton than to run against Cornin. Now Cornin is also a creature of DC which is very unpopular. Paxton is hugely flawed and has many many ethical problems.

[00:19:53]Where do you come down on it and what do you think this all means for I mean the general election?

[00:19:59]>> Yeah, I think Paxton is a slightly easier opponent than Cornin. Maybe not quite um as much as the conventional wisdom is kind of for the reasons that you lay out there. uh you know, if you're a Republican in Texas, you really want to turn out the MAGA base. Um you know, the the number of, you know, kind of suburban Dallas and Houston Mitt Romney Republicans is withering. Some of them still exist, but a lot of them have started to vote for Democrats at this point. I think a lot of those will already be Telerico voters. And so, you know, I think that maybe you lose more with Paxton. Uh, but that's this is kind of on the margins. Maybe 1% uh difference, maybe 2% um at the most between Paxton and Cornin. But look, I think given how unpopular Trump is, I think his numbers have to get lower. A lot depends on what the economic situation is, what kind of campaign Terico runs. But I I I think that Texas is potentially in play this year. And, you know, the Republicans, as Jim said, are going to have to waste a bunch of money in this race. And by the way, they've already wasted a bunch of money.

[00:21:00]And that's another reason they're all mad at Trump. They spent, I think, 70 million, I'm going from memory, to try to boo boost Cornin during this primary.

[00:21:08]So all of that money, you know, was just flushed down the toilet for no reason.

[00:21:12]And and we should just add for fun, what a humiliating end of a career for John Cornin, you know, who came into the Senate running an ad campaign where he called himself big bad John and he had a big old cowboy hat on and instead he ends like graveling for Trump's endorsement and doesn't get it anyway.

[00:21:29]And even after he didn't get the endorsement, his post was like, "I still love you. I still love you." Was basically my summary of it. Okay, Tim.

[00:21:37]Jim, stay right where you are. There's more results coming in. We're going to talk about that a little bit also about what Thomas Massie had to say in his concession speech, which I thought was pretty interesting. We'll be right back.

[00:21:52]Tonight, Republican Congressman Thomas Massiey's concession speech fit the mold of neither a typical Republican or Democratic candidates's concession speech. He touted his work on the Epstein files and railed against Fox News and Trump's war with Iran and Trump's ballroom while in the same speech railing against vaccines and making trans jokes and toasting with a glass of raw milk. It was quite a mad lib this whole speech. Now, Massiey's lost tonight in the most expensive primary in American history. In a race where the president himself used everything at his disposal to try to force Massie out of office. Well, I'm sure this race will be picked apart by pundits in a lot of ways for a very long time. But tonight, Massie had a message he wanted to send about all the people who did come out to support him despite Trump and despite all the money spent to oust him. Listen, if you always vote with the president, if the if the legislative branch always votes with the president, we do have a king.

[00:22:50]>> If the legislative branch always vote, which votes whichever way the wind is blowing, then we have mob rule.

[00:22:59]>> But if the legislative branch and the representatives and the senators that serve with it always follow the constitution, we have a republic.

[00:23:12]There is a yearning in this country for somebody who will vote for principles over party.

[00:23:21]>> We're back with Tim Miller and Jim Msina. I don't know about the chugging raw milk and antivaccines, but there were some good moments in that speech.

[00:23:29]So, one of the things that struck me about that, and we just played part of it always, and Jim, let me start with you, is I mean, Thomas Massie isn't isn't going away. Bill Cassidy has made clear he isn't going away. I mean, after losing over the weekend, Cassidy came out against ballroom funding and then voted with Democrats on a war powers resolution. I remember, you know, we worked together when you were part of like whipping votes for healthc care and you, you know, you're you're trying to get Republicans on board. You're trying to get coalitions together. That's true when you were Senate Chief of Staff, too. How much does that matter that you have a couple of these members, maybe more than just them, who are pretty pissed off and just they're going to do whatever they want to do right now? Oh, it matters a lot. Jen, there's a saying in DC, beware of elected officials with political vendettas. Uh, and I think Donald Trump is about to find out. Uh, that is very true. You know, you have two members who just got defeated for seats they care very deeply about by the president of the United States, and they still have some time to make it very clear what they think. And your Kennedy example of him voting on the War Powers Act is a great example. I think it is very unlikely that we're not going to hear a whole bunch from both of these people and they're going to spend the rest of their term, you know, being very clear their displeasure with the president of the United States. And it's especially a big deal for Massie because Republicans barely have control of the House. They have, you know, they can't even get clo uh people together on some of the tightest votes they have. And so if Massie starts to walk away from them, it gets even harder to do anything here.

[00:25:00]So, I think we're going to be in for a whole bunch of theater. Kennedy's the same. He could start voting against all Trump's nominees, object to unanimous consent. For those of us geeks who understand what that is in the United States Senate, means they can't do anything if Kennedy decides to stop them. So, we're about to have a whole bunch of fun with a couple members who don't have anything to lose and a bunch of free time.

[00:25:25]>> Free free Massie, I suppose, is where we're at here. Um, let me ask you, Tim, I mean, you hear these concession speeches and it's like there is a future of the Republican party or there is a future party that it just doesn't look like this. I mean, some of the things I think we've learned over the past couple days is if you go against Trump like Massie did, you'll face his dire. But Trump abandoning Cornin also goes to show that no amount of loyalty or sucking up to him will actually guarantee your safety in his coalition.

[00:25:53]So, if you're a Republican looking to hold on to power or have power, I mean, what do you what do you do here?

[00:26:00]>> Well, you're in a pickle. Um, I think that if you're a Republican in a red state right now, um, you continue to stick with Trump because that's where the party members are. Um, even if it's narrowing, as we saw in Kentucky, I think it's a tougher call if you're in a swing state, though. I noticed Trump's going to campaign for Mike Lawler, who's an ultimate swing state, uh, or swing district rather, candidate in New York.

[00:26:22]And so I guess he's making the bet to stick with Trump. I think that's pretty telling that he's still doing that. But look, things change in politics. And I one other thing that you didn't play that happened in Massiey's speech is some of the crowd shouted started chanting at him 2028, president 2028.

[00:26:36]And and I'm not going to be on here right now predicting that Thomas Massiey's going to be the Republican nominee in 2028. But depending on how bad things go for Donald Trump um the next two years, things can change dramatically. And uh I and like I mentioned in the first segment, I don't think 45% of the vote is nothing. I think people are very upset with him about the war in the Epstein files, just not enough to get to a majority yet. And Donald Trump ran in 2016, I would know better than anybody, uh as a direct assault on the Bush legacy in the party.

[00:27:07]Barack Obama, as Jim would know, ran in 2020 2008, maybe not as a direct assault, but a critique of the Clinton establishment of the party. and both of them won two terms, not consecutive for Trump. And so, I don't know. I I think that there are some interesting lessons from Nassie's, you know, uh, result tonight, even in defeat.

[00:27:26]>> Well, we'll keep talking about it, I'm sure. Tim Miller, Jim Msina, thank you both for being here. Tune on all these results with us. Okay, we've got Alli Veli. We told you we'd come back to him.

[00:27:36]He's still standing by at the big board.

[00:27:38]Still vest.