By Scott Bland
May 22, 2012 | 8:12 PM
Lewis County Judge-Executive Thomas Massie won the Republican primary in Kentucky's 4th Congressional District Tuesday night, demonstrating again the ascendence of the Rand Paul wing of the state party.
The Associated Press called the race for Massie, a strident tea partier endorsed by Paul, just after 8:05 p.m. With 73 percent of precincts reporting, Massie led state Rep. Alecia Webb-Edgington 45 percent to 29 percent. Boone County Judge-Executive Gary Moore was in third at 17 percent, with four other candidates trailing him.
Webb-Edgington had the endorsement of retiring GOP Rep. Geoff Davis and the help of some of his old staff. But in a reverse of the usual trend in this cycle's Republican primaries, she split the establishment with Moore, who was also drawing money and endorsements from the more traditional wing of the Kentucky GOP. Massie, meanwhile, had the tea party side of the electorate to himself and help from Paul and other outside allies, including a local super PAC and several others from outside the district.
The 4th District is safely Republican, having given Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., over 60 percent of its presidential vote in 2008. Massie will almost surely be the next member of Congress from that seat.
