What we found in a visit to Trump target Thomas Massie's Kentucky farm

• U.S. Rep. Thomas Massie lives in an off-the-grid home he built on his 1,500-acre farm in Garrison, Kentucky.
• Massie is facing a primary challenge from Ed Gallrein, who has been endorsed by former President Donald Trump.
• Massie's political stances often put him at odds with his own party, including disagreements with Trump over federal spending and foreign wars.

GARRISON, KY – The gravel road to U.S. Rep. Thomas Massie's home snakes its way up a hill, past a tree he's tapping for maple syrup, and ends at a home he built of timber and stones he hand-chiseled.  

His house sits at the top of a hill on his 1,500-acre farm in this town, about 100 miles east of Cincinnati. It took about four years of work before his wife and kids were able to move in.

"We have a double-wide up this holler that we lived in for a while," he said. "Nine hundred square feet with four kids, and I kept telling her, 'Honey I'll have the house livable any day now.'"

That was more than two decades ago, long before the Kentucky Republican became a regular foil to President Donald Trump.

Since then, he's been elected to Congress seven times. His four children are grown and married. Rhonda Massie, his wife and high school sweetheart, died unexpectedly in June 2024.

"It's like an amputation. You don't get it back, you don't get over it. It gets easier, but I do cry every day," he told The Enquirer, part of the USA TODAY Network, about losing his wife and both of her parents within about 18 months.

Massie invited The Enquirer to his farm in Garrison, Kentucky, on March 30.

The small city is home to just over 700 people, according to the U.S. Census. The major features of it include a local grocery store, drive-through tobacco shops and trails people use to ride their ATVs.  

The area is home to Massie's off-the-grid home and farm where he spends his time when he's not in Washington, DC.

The 'worst Republican' in Congress

Amid the massive change in Massie's personal life, he's also facing his biggest political obstacle since he was elected in 2012: Trump's wrath. 

Trump and Massie – who represents almost 800,000 Kentucky voters in the 4th Congressional District – have butted heads on and off for years. 

But their relationship nosedived after Trump took office again in 2025.

They've disagreed about federal spending, the U.S. involvement in foreign wars and the release of the Epstein files. 

"We've got to get rid of this loser," Trump told voters when he visited Hebron, Kentucky, a Cincinnati suburb in Massie's district, on March 11. "He's disloyal to the Republican Party. He's disloyal to Kentucky. And most importantly, he's disloyal to the United States of America. He's got to be voted out of office as soon as possible."

Trump endorsed former Navy SEAL captain Ed Gallrein for Massie's seat in October. 

Gallrein, a fifth-generation farmer, has not responded through his spokesperson to repeated requests by the Enquirer for a similar farm tour or interview.

In written responses to a primary election guide by The Courier Journal, another USA TODAY Network news organization, Gallrein said the district "doesn't have a Congressman looking out for us ... It is holding Kentucky back and has diminished our voice in Washington."

While standing on stage with Trump in early March, Gallrein also took swings at Massie and the women who host "The View." 

"Mr. President, I will stand with you and the party to put America first and Kentucky always," Gallrein said. "Tom Massie stands with the ladies of 'The View.' Mr. President, we stand with you."

The May 19 Republican primary for the seat is shaping up to be one of the most expensive political primaries this year, serving as a test of Trump's influence in the GOP as a nationally unpopular lame duck president.

Off-the-grid living: 'I wanted to do something that was real'

The gilded ballrooms of Trump's Mar-a-Lago could not seem farther away from Massie's farm, where Massie showed off inventions and projects he's worked on for years.

He points out the "Appalachian ingenuity" he's using to build a small bridge on his farm with recycled railroad ties. He gushed about a barn that's been standing since the 1940s. And he slipped in a dad joke about a piece of farming equipment. 

"Can you guess what this piece of equipment is? Here's the clue: this company will not stand behind its product," he said with a smile. "It's a manure spreader, so it flings manure out the back!"

Closer to his home, he repositioned three large solar panels in his yard while he talked about the Epstein files.

He and U.S. Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., led the effort to unseal documents related to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. 

Trump signed the Epstein Files Transparency Act into law in November and files have been released in waves since then. 

"Are we going to convict anybody in those files? There are clearly some men who are guilty here in the United States that need to be brought to trial," Massie said. "And so the question is, do we really have a system of justice?"

The solar panels, along with the ones on his roof, and a modified Tesla battery, power Massie's off-the-grid home.

His tinkering and inventing dates back to when he was a kid, building robots and taking things apart at home.

His dad ran a small beer distribution business and his mom was a nurse. He grew up with a sister and brother, though his mom sometimes invited "borderline homeless" teens (who faced family troubles) to stay with them, he said.

For his and Rhonda's first "date," he told his parents he was going to help her with a science project.

"That was my racket. Everybody thought I was helping her with a science project, but I didn't know anything about superconductors," he said. "She was off-the-charts smarts." 

They both graduated from Lewis County High School and attended the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The Massies lived in married student housing before they bought a house in New Hampshire. Together, they created a virtual reality company that they eventually sold when they moved back to Kentucky in 2003.

"I spent a decade doing the company, and at the end of that, I wanted to do something more tangible," he said. "I wanted to do something that was real." 

Growing food and sourcing all the materials for their home felt like the exact opposite of what he'd spent the past decade doing. 

Now, he has trees that grow nectarines, peaches, apples and sweet cherries. He has multiple gardens, cattle and chickens.

His farmland is operated under a company called Howard Massie Farms LLC. The land is split into several parcels worth about $1.32 million full cash value, according to documents from the Lewis County Property Valuation office.

But his homesteading is also rooted in the things he valued growing up. Because in addition to building robots, he also loved exploring in the woods. Looking for downed trees that he can use as timber for a barn or his home feels similar to those youthful adventures.  

"It's just – creating things, tangible things, is rewarding," he said.

'If the country is savable, I'll win'

Massie drove The Enquirer to Collins Country Market, the local grocery store that's been around for 80 years, which displays a taxidermy collection of animal heads − including buffalo, elk and deer − on the walls.

He needed to pick up a red bell pepper and oranges for his new wife, whom he married last fall. He met Carolyn Grace Moffa years ago when she was working for U.S. Sen. Rand Paul, and they reconnected after he lost his wife.  

After the small, intimate ceremony on the Massie farm last October, she kept her veil on as they slaughtered chickens together.

Massie chatted with the store clerk while he bought his items and drove off. Moments later, his truck circled back into the parking lot. 

"She added something to my grocery list," he said, gushing with a smile as he walked into the store again so he could buy flour for her sourdough bread starter.

After the grief Massie recently experienced, it's hard to understand why a private person who's so excited for the next chapter of his life would stay in such a contentious political race. 

But Massie said his perspective on reelection is different than a lot of his colleagues'.  

"They desperately want to get reelected like it's the best thing that ever happened to them in their lives," he said. "But for me, it's always been a job. Not something that I need to validate my existence."

Fancy dinners, rubbing shoulders with other leaders, and wearing their shiny congressional pin is the kind of lifestyle a lot of them value, he continued. But not caring as much about those things means he's able to cast votes more "independently," he said. 

The results of a recent political fundraiser indicate that independence matters to voters.

The same day The Enquirer visited Massie's farm, he was hosting a "Massie Moneybomb" fundraiser online – an effort to raise $100,000 in 24 hours. 

He easily hit that goal by early afternoon and said it might be possible to hit $200,000 with some online programming he had scheduled later in the evening. 

Donors ended up pouring in more than $300,000 by midnight.  

Massie feels confident he's going to win the election, though no reliable, independent polling has been done in the race. 

He thinks that, even amid the recent insults from Trump and Gallrein in his own district, even among voters in T-shirts waving signs in support of his opponent. 

"If the country is savable, I'll win. And if it's not savable," he said, "I don't want to be there."

Have a news tip? Comment? You can reach Northern Kentucky reporter Jolene Almendarez at[email protected] or follow her onsocial media. Keep up with Northern Kentucky news atNKY.com or by downloading ourNKY news app.