BOONE COUNTY, Ky.—Far from super PAC war rooms and the halls of Capitol Hill, Tiffany Cianci takes a break from the barrage of on-air interviews from an Airbnb overlooking the Ohio River in rural northern Kentucky.
The rental serves as a temporary home for Cianci and a few dozen social media content creators who have flocked here from across the country to support Rep. Thomas Massie during the final days of his bid to defeat challenger Ed Gallrein—who is backed by President Donald Trump—in Kentucky’s Fourth Congressional District Republican primary on May 19.
Cianci, who lives in Washington. D.C., told The Epoch Times that she is a “builder of coalitions of creators” who refuse corporate or partisan paychecks for their positions.
For years, she said she has connected independent social media content creators—right, left, and independent —with large audiences “as long as they do not take money from either major party machine or major corporate interests.”
Kentucky’s Fourth District Republican primary is the most expensive primary in U.S. House history, with more than $25 million spent on political ads, according to AdImpact.
Cianci calls her group “Voices for the Voters.”
On May 12, Cianci took to X and urged social media influencers to gather in Kentucky and support Massie. That post alone has gained 1.4 million views.
“I need you to tag every creator you know on this app, and I need you to tell them that we ride at dawn for Thomas Massie because that’s exactly what we need to do,” Cianci said.
“I want every major creator that is available on this app. No matter where you fall on the political spectrum, if you are against corruption in politics and you want to make a difference, I need you here in Northern Kentucky.”
Around 100 content creators answered the call. Half joined Cianci on the ground in northern Kentucky, and the others contributed from their home bases.
Cianci noted that she has not trademarked Voices for the Voters because there is no funding stream or formal structure.
“We’re a group of creators who agree on one core principle—fighting corruption and information suppression. We don’t do this for money. We do it for conscience,” she told The Epoch Times.
Tiffany Cianci (R) created Voices for the Voters to help Rep. Thomas Massie in his Kentucky Fourth District primary on May 19. She was joined by Shannon Joy (L) and other creators. (Jeff Louderback/The Epoch Times)
Former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) said Cianci’s post is “how you beat the machine of foreign donors, establishment media and political consultants who are spending millions of dollars to buy the 4th district of Kentucky.”
An array of pro-Israel groups and donors, including the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), have poured millions into the race attacking Massie.
Federal Election Commission (FCC) data show that Gallrein’s campaign has raised around $3.16 million, including more than $63,000 in direct PAC donations from the Republican Jewish Coalition (RJC) and the United Democracy Project, which is AIPAC’s super PAC.
The Track AIPAC online platform indicates that Gallrein’s campaign has received close to $11.8 million from independent expenditures.
Kentucky 4th PAC, Make Liberty Win, Defeating Communism PAC and other anti-Massie groups surpassed $10 million in independent expenditures, according to Decision Desk HQ.
Pro-Trump super PAC MAGA Kentucky poured more than $7 million into ousting Massie, Decision Desk HQ noted.
MAGA Kentucky received $750,000 from the Preserve America PAC, a group linked to billionaire megadonor Miriam Adelson. Paul Singer, another billionaire, directly donated $1 million to MAGA Kentucky and $2.5 million to AIPAC-affiliated super PACs.
On May 18, Decision Desk HQ said on X, “Tomorrow is a BIG primary day. The marquee race: Kentucky’s 4th District, where Thomas Massie could be the latest GOP incumbent to fall to a Trump-endorsed opponent, Ed Gallrein. Per FEC data, anti-Massie outside spending leads pro-Massie spending $15.5 mil to $10.3 mil.”
“It’s exhausting when you go through all the donations, where they came from, and why they were donated,” Cianci said.
Kentucky's Fourth District Republican primary was among the races on the ballot on May 19. 2026. (Jeff Louderback/The Epoch Times)
Massie has relied on small donors and younger supporters, Cianci told The Epoch Times.
An MIT-trained engineer by trade, Massie has served in Congress since 2012.
Trump and Massie have shared an up-and-down political relationship for years.
In the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, Congress accelerated the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act. Massie tried to get a recorded vote in the House, saying that a bill authorizing trillions in new spending and emergency authorities should not be passed with a voice vote with only a fraction of the members in attendance.
His stance ignited opposition from colleagues who wanted to act quickly. Trump publicly called for Massie’s expulsion from the Republican Party.
In 2022, Trump praised Massie, calling him a “Conservative Warrior” and a “first-rate Defender of the Constitution.”
They have clashed over multiple issues during the president’s second term.
Massie voted against Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act in 2025, arguing that it increased the national debt.
An outspoken critic of the Iran war, Massie has also sponsored a War Powers Resolution in an attempt to require that the administration cease hostilities.
In a May 17 Truth Social post, Trump called Massie a “third rate congressman” and said that he “must be thrown out of office.”
The president added that Massie is “the worst Republican congressman in history” and urged people in Kentucky’s Fourth District to vote for Gallrein.
At a May 16 rally in Florence, Ky.—where he was joined by Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), Rep. Warren Davidson (R-Ohio), Rep. Victoria Spartz (R-Ind.), and Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Col.)—Massie acknowledged that Gallrein is garnering more support from voters 65 and older because “they get their information from Fox News.”
Younger voters, he said, watch podcasts and read alternative media.
“We’ve got influencers from all over the country here pushing to get out the young vote. If we get just a 5 percent increase in turnout among people under the age of 55, which I think will happen, we’ll blow this race out of the water,” Massie added.
At 24, Chicago-based social media content creator Hunter Howell was the youngest in the Voices for the Voters group that traveled to northern Kentucky to support Rep. Thomas Massie in his race against Ed Gallrein on May 19, 2026. (Jeff Louderback/The Epoch Times)
Collectively, Cianci’s group has an 46 million followers across multiple social media platforms, she said. In a week, the group’s efforts have tallied an estimated 1.4 billion engagements on X alone, she added, not counting TikTok, Instagram, Snapchat, and other platforms.
Early morning live streams, late-night editing sessions, and miles of driving across the district have defined the group’s last week, said Shannon Joy, who drove to northern Kentucky from her home in Rochester, N.Y.
“If we can prove that we can out‑influence money with integrity, we will be the force that changes everything,” said Joy, who hosts the Shannon Joy Show.
Joy believes that the group’s influence shows how “anti‑corruption creators can meaningfully counter tens of millions in spending.”
That model could support “a thousand Thomas Massies in the future,” Cianci added.
“We envision thousands of anti‑corruption candidates up and down the ballot, and a million of us in independent media pushing them forward,” she said.
Joy told The Epoch Times that she had never supported a national candidate over 13 years on the air—until answering Cianci’s call.
“Here I am, a woman driving down to the middle of Kentucky, to the middle of nowhere, to join this team. I had no idea what I was going to be met with,” Joy explained.
Joy said her plan was to drive eight hours, “get the vibe,” and “turn right around if it felt like standard transactional politics.”
What she found was a cross-generational mix of creators ranging in age from early 20s to mid-70s, posting content on Rumble, Twitter/X, Substack, TikTok, Instagram, and Snapchat.
Cianci said that Massie’s commitment to fighting surveillance through warrantless searches, blanket liability shields for chemical and pharmaceutical companies, and the expansion of data and AI infrastructure is why he stands out as a “principled defender” of issues that are important to voters.
“Three lost generations will never be better off than their parents unless this corruption is confronted,” she added. “No matter if Thomas Massie wins or loses, we’ve provided a template for how citizens and creators can make an impact.”
At 24, Hunter Howell is the youngest content creator in Cianci’s group. He joined Zachary Foust of the Zach Foust Show and Bobby Sauce of the Bobby Sauce Show outside a polling location in Boone County, Kentucky.
Based in Chicago, Howell is an independent journalist who calls his generation “disenfranchised” with traditional media outlets.
“Many of us in my age group see that the narratives on mainstream outlets simply don’t match the reality we experience. That drives us to seek information through social media instead,” Howell said.
“We’re people from all across the political spectrum united by our sense of urgency to help get exuberant amounts of wealth out of political campaigns,” Howell said.
Social media content creators Zachary Foust (L) and Bobby Sauce conducted exit polls in Boone County, Ky. on May 19, 2026. (Jeff Louderback/The Epoch Times)
“Ordinary people have more power than they realize. We’ve shown that over the last week,” he added.
Sauce added: “We want people who don’t typically participate in a primary to feel motivated and vote.”
Foust talked to The Epoch Times after interviewing some voters as they exited the polls.
“We’re out here because we love America. Massie just happens to be what we perceive as the best representation of our position. Whether voters choose to vote one way or the other is not really our objective. The objective is to make them aware,” he said.
