The chances that Thomas Massie will win the primary to keep his seat next Tuesday have plummeted on Polymarket, after the hush money scandal emerged yesterday.
First, here’s the news:
JUST IN: Thomas Massie’s reelection odds are tanking amid hush money allegations from an ex-girlfriend.
He’s now projected to be unseated. pic.twitter.com/GGMvh2zj5e
— Polymarket (@Polymarket) May 13, 2026
So what hush money scandal? Axios has the news on that. Note the parts I bolded in red. Seriously.
A former girlfriend of Rep. Thomas Massie accused him this week of offering her $5,000 to drop a wrongful termination complaint against his close ally, Rep. Victoria Spartz.
Why it matters: Cynthia West’s accusation surfaced a week before Massie’s May 19 primary.
- President Trump is targeting the Kentucky Republican in what has become the most expensive U.S. House primary in history.
- West said she did not coordinate or communicate in any way with Trump’s political operation and the campaign of Massie’s primary opponent, Ed Gallrein.
- West said Massie’s offer involved cash that he had previously given her during their relationship and that she later returned to him.
Zoom in: West told Axios she broke her silence because she resented Massie for speaking about the need for transparency when it came to releasing the Epstein files — even as, she alleges, he attempted to silence her with cash when she accused an ally of his, Spartz (R-Ind.), of wrongdoing.
- West worked in Spartz’s office for about six weeks after Massie, West’s boyfriend at the time, arranged it.
- After she broke up with Massie, West said, she was fired by Spartz, who has a reputation as one of the “worst bosses on the Hill,” according to Legistorm.
- This March, according to a proposed agreement obtained by Axios, West was offered a $60,000 settlement in her wrongful termination complaint against Spartz. But it came with a nondisclosure agreement that West refused to sign, she said.
What they’re saying: Reached by phone, Massie declined comment and referred questions to Kentucky state Rep. Steven Doan, a family law attorney who questioned West’s credibility, citing filings from her prior divorce.
- Massie’s political account hid replies Tuesday on at least one post on X from users who linked to West’s accusations.
- His campaign later issued a statement, saying: “These last minute dirty tricks don’t merit a response. The trashy lies they’re putting out now demonstrate how desperate they are.”
- A spokesperson for Spartz said her “office cannot comment on the details of Ms. West’s pending allegations, but we can confirm that Ms. West held a temporary 90-day probationary position with our office, and her employment was not extended beyond that period due to unsatisfactory job performance.”
The other side: West told Axios that the shortcomings in her divorce case were her fault because she represented herself instead of hiring an attorney.
- A school board candidate in Okaloosa County, Florida, West said she is campaigning against the very type of bullying and toxic political environments she found working in Spartz’s office.
- “What kind of person would I be if I did this [by taking a settlement with an NDA] when I have the ability to teach the culture,” she said.
Flashback: West told Axios she began dating Massie after he messaged her on X in August 2024, shortly after his wife died.
- In late December 2024, she said, Massie arranged her job in Spartz’s office so that she could be in D.C. at the same time he was there.
- In mid-January 2025, she said, she broke up with Massie after he grew “emotionally abusive” because she refused to “engage in behavior I wasn’t comfortable with.”
- She was later let go by Spartz’s office, she said, because she complained of the toxic work environment, Spartz’s decision to hire a noncitizen for a district director job and the representative’s insistence on getting involved in Ukraine’s elections.
The intrigue: When she called Massie to inform him that she was filing a complaint against Spartz, she said he offered to give her $5,000 in cash.
- West said the money was half of the $10,000 he gave to her in an envelope of $100 bills when they first began dating as a surety for incidentals if West, a single mom, left her job to work for Spartz and needed the money.
- West said she returned the cash to Massie when they met at a Kentucky Cracker Barrel.
- “You’re just one person. You’re not going to make a difference. Just walk away,” West said Massie told her.
I bet you that ‘behavior’ she wasn’t comfortable with was in the bedroom. If so, yikes.