National Club For Growth Endorses Massie in Fourth Congressional District Primary

A national conservative organization has thrown its support behind Thomas Massie in Kentucky’s Fourth Congressional District GOP Primary.The Club for Growth announced its endorsement today, saying members believe Massie would best emulate U.S. Senator Rand Paul, one of the organization’s most-loved lawmakers.The club has not announced any plans for further involvement in the primary, but officials say they could send money to Massie if the race looks close, and the club may run TV ads if necessary. “In every race we always bundle contributions from our members to candidates as the situation warrants," says Club for Growth spokesman Barney Keller. "If we feel like Tom Massie will win by 20 points, and we hope he does obviously, we won’t need to support him as much with the individual contributions, if we think its close we’ll certainly look at doing television advertisements."The national Club for Growth is known for its Tea Party roots and for making scorecards that measure how conservative lawmakers are. Alecia Webb-Edgington and Gary Moore are the other frontrunners in the primary. Keller says the group didn’t interview them because their political records don’t line up with his organization's beliefs.“We interviewed Tom Massie and we were very impressed by his commitment to economic freedom. You know we don’t need to interview Mrs. Webb-Edgington or Gary Moore,” he says.The group often endorses Tea Party-leaning candidates in Republican primaries. When reached for comment, Massie was unaware of the endorsement.Jonathan Duke, the campaign manager for Moore, says the endorsement is "not the proudest moment" for the Club for Growth. He says the group was swayed by misinformation about Moore, who Duke says will be a big advocate for the same things the Club for Growth supports.