Sen. Mitch McConnell’s (R-KY) retirement, announced on Thursday, could open up a path for Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY), among the most consistent opponents of legislation to support Israel and combat antisemitism in the House, to make a bid for the U.S. Senate in the 2026 midterms. The prospect is already generating fierce opposition from the local and national Jewish community.

While Massie has not yet announced his plans, and his office did not respond to a request for comment, he’s been seen in recent years as a contender for McConnell’s seat when the 83-year-old senator retired. Massie publicly floated the prospect of running for Senate on Thursday afternoon, posting a poll on X asking followers whether he should remain in the House, run for Senate or run for governor.

The Republican Jewish Coalition quickly pledged that it would mount an aggressive push against Massie if he runs.

“If Tom Massie chooses to enter the race for US Senate in Kentucky, the RJC campaign budget to ensure he is defeated will be unlimited,” Republican Jewish Coalition CEO Matt Brooks, who has repeatedly condemned Massie, said in a statement to Jewish Insider.

The RJC previously backed a primary challenge to the libertarian-minded congressman, who also opposes foreign aid broadly.

Former Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron, seen by many in the state as heir apparent to McConnell, said minutes after the senator announced his retirement that he will run for the seat. Rep. Andy Barr (R-KY) said he’s considering a bid as well. Nate Morris, a Kentucky businessman and strident McConnell critic, is also seen as a likely contender.

Rep. James Comer (R-KY), also seen as a potential candidate, said he would pass on a Senate bid. On the Democratic side, Gov. Andy Beshear, who would have been one of the few candidates to make the general election competitive, also opted not to run.

United Democracy Project, the AIPAC-affiliated super PAC, began laying the groundwork for an anti-Massie push in the 2024 election, running a series of statewide TV ads highlighting the congressman’s anti-Israel voting record while saying it was not intending to get involved in his primary race, which was largely noncompetitive.

“We are shining a spotlight on Tom Massie’s atrocious anti-Israel record,” UDP spokesperson Patrick Dorton said at the time. “We are going to make sure every voter in the state of Kentucky knows how bad Tom Massie is on Israel.”

Massie’s potential statewide ambitions seemed to be a subtext to that ad campaign. Kentucky’s next gubernatorial race is set for 2027, another potential statewide opportunity for Massie or other Republicans who skip the Senate race.

Jewish leaders in Kentucky said that a Massie Senate candidacy would be deeply concerning.

“To go from Sen. McConnell, who will go down in history as a historic ally of the Jewish people, as a champion of Israel, as a friend the likes of which the Jews have had far and few between in the history of our diaspora, to Thomas Massie, who goes out of his way to troll Jews … would be such a devastating change, not only for the Jewish community in Kentucky, but for the representation Kentucky receives,” Rabbi Shlomo Litvin, the chair of the Kentucky Jewish Council, who has feuded publicly with the congressman, said.

Massie has openly said that he refuses to meet with Litvin, even on issues unrelated to Israel, in part because of his support for Israel.

According to Litvin, in Massie’s most recent meeting with a group of AIPAC activists from his district several years ago, Massie opened the meeting by saying, “This is the last time I’m ever meeting with you guys. What do you want?”

Massie has accused those who support Israel of being agents of a foreign government and said AIPAC should be forced to register as such.

“Many feel there that there has been outright hostility with the Jewish community and his voting record on issues related to Israel and supporting Israel … has been really upsetting and his repeated Holocaust analogies that have been called out and he has been completely unapologetic about are really problematic,” Melanie Maron Pell, the chief field operations officer at the American Jewish Committee, who lives in Kentucky, told JI.

“He has not gone out of his way to win over the Jewish community,” Pell said. 

Al Cross, a professor emeritus of journalism at the University of Kentucky School of Journalism and a political columnist, said that Massie’s moves are generally hard to predict, but that he may be better-known than Barr, given his social media and national profile.

“He would get the Rand Paul voter. He and Paul are very much in tune, and Rand Paul has a lot of popularity in the state,” Cross said, referring to the state’s junior senator, who also leans libertarian. “You can’t count Massie out but you can’t count him in. He’s just an unpredictable guy. He doesn’t operate by the same rules that most politicians do.”

Barr, a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, has a strong record of support for Israel and legislation combating antisemitism in the House, where he has served since 2013.

“Our Jewish community is incredibly proud to have him as a representative,” Litvin said. “We would put his record up against literally any member of Congress, either party, any background, for standing with the Jewish community.”

Litvin noted that Barr had also appeared at a recent bill signing for the state’s anti-Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions legislation and has faced threats from anti-Israel groups in the district.

Pell said that Barr had attended AJC events and had been “really effective” and “came off as very committed to Israel, very committed to the Jewish community. I think there’s been no question about that. I think we’ve all seen him as a friend on the Foreign Relations Committee.”

Litvin also praised Cameron’s record.

He “firmly stood with the Jewish community, loudly advocated against hate crimes that occurred, spoke out to protect Jewish students on campus” as attorney general, Litvin said.

Cameron recently collaborated with the Coalition for Jewish Values, a politically conservative Orthodox rabbinic group, on the documentary “Terror Bank,” which accuses Amalgamated Bank of funding groups linked to terrorist organizations, as well as Democratic politicians, work that Litvin also praised.

In his role as attorney general, Cameron found himself at odds with a group of Jewish women in Kentucky, who sued to challenge the state’s abortion ban on religious grounds, claiming the ban violated Jewish law.

Pell and Litvin said that they are largely unfamiliar with Morris.

Cross said that Cameron is the likely favorite for the Senate seat, given his previous statewide runs and name recognition.

He said that McConnell may have announced his candidacy early in order to give Cameron — who was not a strong fundraiser in the gubernatorial race — time to raise money, which Barr and the independently wealthy Morris already have. “The winner of this race will get the outside money, but it’s to be seen who’s going to play in a primary,” Cross said.

He predicted that McConnell likely favors Cameron, a protege, and McConnell’s allies may assist him with fundraising, but said that McConnell will likely not offer a public endorsement given his unpopularity in Kentucky.

“The big imponderable here is Trump,” Cross continued, noting that he had strongly backed Cameron in the Senate race. “People in the party do remember that Trump was for [Cameron], and that was a big factor in him winning that nomination as easily as he did.”

He predicted that Trump may stay out of the race for now, but said that those in Trump’s orbit may demand that candidates fully repudiate McConnell, which only Morris has done so far.

On the Democratic side, Cross said that Beshear would have had a “fighting chance” and that Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) may still pressure him to run, but predicted that Beshear is eyeing the presidency, vice presidency or a cabinet post in 2028.

Cross said that Beshear’s senior advisor, Rocky Adkins, a conservative anti-abortion Democrat — ”the Joe Manchin of Kentucky, basically” — may be a viable candidate. Democratic state House Minority Leader Pamela Stevenson has filed to run, but Cross predicted she’ll struggle to gain traction outside of Louisville.

Kentucky Jewish leaders also lauded McConnell’s record on Israel and antisemitism, describing him as a longtime friend who was always available to the Jewish community.

“I don’t think there’s enough I can say about Senator McConnell and his legacy,” Litvin said. “Senator McConnell, whether it’s his efforts on behalf of retrieving Holocaust art and seeing justice that still needs to be done when it comes to Holocaust survivors, his efforts for the Schneerson library, his efforts combating antisemitism, standing with Israel. Senator McConnell has put himself on a short list of historic leaders who defended the Jewish community.”

He noted that McConnell’s office had reached out to express condolences about the deaths of members of the Bibas family in captivity in Gaza. 

While Pell acknowledged that some in the Jewish community may not have voted for McConnell and have not always seen eye to eye with him on other issues, “there is no question of his willingness to stand up for Israel, his willingness to stand up against antisemitism, his consistent support for the Jewish community, his willingness to show up and speak to the Jewish community.”

She also noted that the 83-year-old senator is using his “final run in his very long career to stand up against isolationism, and he’s made it very clear that he wants to be a voice of clarity … I think he still has a very important role to play — rather than the dominant voice in his party — as a contrarian voice in his party pushing back against this isolationist trend.”