Republican Sen. Thom Tillis pushed back on President Donald Trump’s criticisms of him after the president repeatedly criticized him for opposing Republicans’ “One Big, Beautiful Bill.”
Tillis spoke to The Independent after delivering a speech on the Senate floor following his shock announcement that he would not seek re-election in the wake of Trump’s attacks.
“I respect President Trump, I support the majority of his agenda, but I don't bow to anybody when the people of North Carolina are at risk and this bill puts them at risk,” Tillis told The Independent.
Tillis had voted against the motion to proceed on the spending bill on Saturday and had signaled he would oppose its final passage because of the steep cuts to Medicaid. Trump sharply criticized him in a series of Truth Social posts and celebrated Tillis’s announcement he would not seek re-election in 2026.
“Great News! “Senator” Thom Tillis will not be seeking reelection,” Trump said.
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.
“I didn't really start this Congress assuming that I was going to run for-re election, but you gotta work hard and keep your options open,” Tillis told The Independent.
“That's what I did,” he said. “And last night felt like a good night to pull the trigger.”
Tillis faced criticism at home from conservatives. Last year, he criticized Mark Robinson, the controversial lieutenant governor and one-time GOP nominee for governor. In 2023, the North Carolina Republican Party censured him.
When asked what he thought about Robinson running for his seat, Tillis said “Minisoldr wouldn’t stand a chance,” a reference to the username that Robinson allegedly used to comment on the pornography site Nude Africa.
On Saturday evening and Sunday morning, Trump criticized Tillis and threatened to back a Republican primary challenger to knock him out of office.
“Numerous people have come forward wanting to run in the Primary against ‘Senator’ Thom Tillis,” Trump wrote. “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 the last 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.,” Clayton said.
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 run from Roy Cooper, the popular former governor of the state who had been floated as a potential running mate to Kamala Harris.
But Tillis’s announcement also signals Trump’s sway within the Republican Party.
The Senate is set to vote on the spending bill, which will make major cuts to Medicaid, SNAP and other social safety net provisions to pay for an extension of the 2017 tax cuts that Trump signed into law and Tillis supported.
Republicans who break or say they will not support it will likely continue to face more Trump criticism or calls for a primary challenge.
In Texas, Ken Paxton, the scandal-ridden attorney general who is running for the Republican nomination against incumbent Republican Sen. John Cornyn, tweeted at at the senator, “you next?”
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