Northern Kentucky attorney Ed Massey wants to return to Frankfort as State Rep. Ed Massey in 2025.
The former two-term Boone County legislator and House Judiciary Committee chairman filed as a Republican candidate for his old 66th District House seat on Dec. 1. The seat is currently held by Rep. Steve Rawlings (R-Burlington), who defeated Massey in the 2022 primary. However, no one knows whether the two men will face off in the 2024 Republican state primary on May 21.
By Dec. 11, Rawlings had not yet filed for reelection to the seat. It is possible that he will choose to run as an incumbent or run for another office. Rawlings declined to comment on which path, if any, he may take. He has until Jan. 5 to file for his current seat or another state seat as a political party candidate, according to the 2024 state election calendar.
“You are welcome to follow up with me later,” Rawlings told LINK nky.
When asked to comment on a potential matchup between himself and Massey for the 66th District seat, Rawlings also declined to comment.
Two Republicans with different ideologies
Massey and Rawlings were at ideological odds during the 2022 Kentucky House race. Although both Republicans, the two men have generally aligned with different camps.
Rawlings campaigned for his current seat as a “Liberty” Republican focused on limited government and strict adherence to the U.S. constitution. His intro on his public Facebook page describes Rawlings as a “Constitutional conservative liberty candidate for state rep in District 66, northern Boone County, KY.”
According to his campaign website, Rawlings has been endorsed by the Make Liberty Win political action committee, which raised $8.34 million for candidates in 2021 and 2022, according to PAC tracker Open Secrets. The PAC’s website says it is dedicated to “electing liberty-defending state legislators” who “defend our only special interest: the US Constitution.” It is not, however, named as a donor to Rawlings’ 2022 campaign by the Kentucky Registry of Election Finance records.
Political action committees tied to Liberty candidates that are named as 2022 donors to Rawlings’ campaign in registry records include Reinventing A New Direction (which donated $1000 to Rawlings’ campaign on Oct. 31, 2022) and Making a Sensible Shift in Elections (which donated $1000 on Sept. 13, 2022 to Rawlings’ campaign). The first PAC is affiliated with U.S. Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), and the second is affiliated with U.S. Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY). Both federal lawmakers were endorsed by the Republican Liberty Caucus in 2022.
Massey pointedly told LINK nky that he doesn’t identify with the Liberty Republican caucus.
“I’m a Republican,” he said. “I’ve not changed. I’ve been a Republican since I started. I’m a conservative.”
He said he sees “hypocrisy” among the Liberty caucus, specifically regarding public education. Massey referred to a push among caucus members (although not exclusive to the caucus) to create a public funding mechanism for non-public schools.
The school choice debate
Rawlings has been vocal about his support for school choice, including public backing of non-public school education. In 2023, he cosponsored a proposed constitutional amendment filed by Rep. Josh Calloway (R-Irvington) that would have allowed voters to authorize the General Assembly to provide funding for non-public K-12 education. The bill never made it to the House floor for a vote.
That may have been due in part, at least, to a 2022 Kentucky Supreme Court ruling that declared a 2021 K-12 education tax credit law unconstitutional. Rawlings told LINK nky in October that any school choice amendment considered in 2024 must have “the strongest language we can.”
Massey says he is not opposed to any school that educates children. But when it comes to school choice, he said he is “not for taking money away from public schools to fund other types of schools because there’s a constitutional directive that we provide free and appropriate public education for all children in the commonwealth.”
According to Massey: “It’s interesting to me that the Liberty group has condemned our public schools, and maintains that they are fundamentalists as it relates to the constitution yet they don’t support the constitutional mandate (for public education of all children). There’s just a lot of hypocrisy there.”
Changing tide?
Massey lost the 2022 Republican primary for the 66th District House seat to Rawlings by 1,468 votes, according to the state Board of Elections. The former lawmaker-turned-return candidate said he mostly credits the loss to low voter turnout in that year’s Republican primary.
Turnout in the Boone County Republican primary on May 17, 2022, was 17.6%, according to the state Board of Elections. (Total voter turnout statewide for that primary was 20.4%, while total statewide Republican turnout was 25%.)
But Massey said he doesn’t see voter turnout being a real issue in 2024. It’s a US presidential election year. Presidential election years historically turn out more voters than midterm election years like 2022.
“I expect that people will be more interested in voting,” said Massey. And he thinks something else may help his chances next year: a changing political tide in the state Republican Party as Massey sees it.
The defeat of two constitutional amendments in 2022 – one that, in part, would have allowed the General Assembly to call itself into session (Amendment 1) and another that would have placed constitutional limits on abortion (Amendment 2) – is an indicator that the tide may be turning again, he told LINK nky.
“I think it always turns,” said Massey. “The pendulum always swings back and forth. I think there was a time that the Liberty movement had a very popular place with voters. I think that’s lessened.”