Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) announced on Sunday that he would not run for re-election next year amid a public clash with President Donald Trump about “One Big, Beautiful Bill” that Republicans plan to pass this week.
Tillis had voted against the motion to proceed on the spending bill and had signaled he would be a no because of the steep cuts to Medicaid. Trump sharply criticized him in a series of Truth Social posts.
In an announcement posted on Sunday, Tillis lamented the fact that fewer lawmakers on both sides of the aisle want to embrace bipartisanship.
Specifically, he decried the fact that Democrats pushed out former senators Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona for their opposition to the filibuster, while he criticized his own party.
“It underscores the greatest form of hypocrisy in American politics,” he said. “When people see independent thinking on the other side, they cheer. But when those very same people see independent thinking coming from their side, they scorn, ostracize, and censure them.”
In recent years, Tillis has become a dealmaker, helping to pass criminal justice reform during the first Trump presidency and the Respect for Marriage Act, which codified protections for same-sex and interracially married couples, and the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, the first major piece of gun legislation in almost three decades, with Democrats during the Biden presidency.
But he faced criticism at home from conservatives. Last year, he criticized Mark Robinson, the lieutenant governor and GOP nominee for governor. In 2023, the North Carolina Republican Party censured him.
On Saturday evening and Sunday morning, Trump criticized Tillis and threatened to back a Republican primary challenger to him.
“Numerous people have come forward wanting to run in the Primary against “Senator Thom” Tillis,” Trump said. “I will be meeting with them over the coming weeks, looking for someone who will properly represent the Great People of North Carolina and, so importantly, the United States of America.”
Trump’s presidency put Tillis in a bind in a state that, with rare exceptions, values competent lawmakers compared to firebrands. He struggled with Trump’s initial nomination of Matt Gaetz to become attorney general and waited until minutes before the final vote to confirm Pete Hegseth to become secretary of Defense. But he also helped shepherd Kash Patel’s confirmation as FBI Director as a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee.
The announcement is a political earthquake for Republicans as Tillis represents a seat in a perpetual swing state that Trump has only narrowly won in his three presidential elections.
“Thom Tillis knows his record won’t win with North Carolina voters,” Anderson Clayton, the chairwoman of the North Carolina Democratic Party, told The Independent in a text message. “Regardless of who the NCGOP picks in a primary, North Carolina voters are prepared to defend our state against extreme cuts to healthcare, jobs, and education from Washington, D.C.”
The announcement will likely create a free-for-all Republican primary for next year’s nomination in the state. On the Democratic side, former congressman Wiley Nickel has already announced his candidacy.
Many also expect Roy Cooper, the popular former governor of the state who had been floated as a potential running mate to Kamala Harris, to also run.