After his electoral loss to Trump's candidate, Massie isn't giving up: he files papers for 2028 and leaves the door open to the White House

Just a week after the former Navy SEAL Ed Gallrein buried him in Kentucky, Rep. Thomas Massie made it clear Monday that he doesn't plan to disappear from the political map. The lawmaker announced that he has already filed papers with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) ahead of 2028. However, he is keeping in abeyance which office he will run for, if he ultimately competes.

"I filed with the [Federal Election Commission] for the 2028 House race. This allows me to raise funds to continue my political operations supporting my position as a current officeholder and as a potential candidate for federal office," the congressman told 'X.' He added, "I haven't made a final decision about which office to seek, if I run." 

Massie himself fueled the conundrum a day earlier during an interview on NBC's Meet the Press on Sunday, where the congressman refused to close the door on a 2028 presidential bid. "I will not rule out anything, and right now I'm not going to rule in anything," he said at the time. The Kentuckian advanced that he will take some time to decide his next step but anticipated that he will remain engaged "in some way or shape," perhaps from the outside.

"I've been exposing what's going on in Washington, D.C., for years, and I'll keep doing it," he sentenced.

The move comes on the heels of one of the most resounding defeats of the primary election cycle, the result of Donald Trump's personal crusade to remove Massie, one of his most uncomfortable critics, from his congressional bench. Gallrein, a White House-backed farmer, won by nearly 10 points in a race that Massie went on to describe as the most expensive congressional primary in the nation's history, with more than $33 million spent on advertising.

Trump, for his part, called Massie a "disaster," traveled to his district in March to boost Gallrein and even sent Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to campaign for his candidate in the home stretch of the expensive and fierce race. The president's offensive punished the independence of the lawmaker, first elected in 2012, and a fierce opponent of the war in Iran and the president's tax and spending package. Likewise, Trump also did not forgive Massie's alliance with Democrat Ro Khanna to force the Department of Justice to release files on the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, once an issue that cost the White House multiple criticisms, including among MAGA voters and allies.