Thom Tillis announced on Sunday that he will not run for re-election to the US Senate next year, one day after the North Carolina Republican’s vote against Donald Trump’s signature piece of domestic legislation prompted the president to launch a barrage of threats and insults – as well as promise to support a primary challenger to defeat him in their party’s 2026 primary.
“In Washington over the last few years, it’s become increasingly evident that leaders who are willing to embrace bipartisanship, compromise, and demonstrate independent thinking are becoming an endangered species,” Tillis said in a statement sent to reporters.
He added: “As many of my colleagues have noticed over the last year, and at times even joked about, I haven’t exactly been excited about running for another term.”
Shortly after Tillis refused to support the massive package of tax and spending cuts, called the “one big beautiful bill”, in a procedural vote in the Senate on Saturday, Trump attacked the senator on his social media platform, Truth Social.
The president accused Tillis of grandstanding “in order to get some publicity for himself, for a possible, but very difficult re-election”. He also wrote that Tillis is making a “BIG MISTAKE for America, and the Wonderful People of North Carolina!”
In a subsequent post on Truth Social, Trump threatened Tillis by saying he would meet with potential candidates to challenge him in a Republican primary in the battleground state.
“Numerous people have come forward wanting to run” against Tillis, Trump wrote Saturday night. “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.”
Before Tillis announced his decision Sunday to retire from the Senate, Trump continued to attack him on social media, writing: “Tillis is a talker and complainer, NOT A DOER! He’s even worse than Rand ‘Fauci’ Paul!”
Tillis was one of two Senate Republicans, along with Rand Paul of Kentucky, to vote against the bill championed by the president. Dr Anthony Fauci was the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases during Trump’s first presidency, and once a key adviser on the Covid-19 pandemic whose support of lockdowns and vaccines made him a hate figure for Trump’s base.
Trump’s attacks came hours after Tillis said in a statement that he “cannot support” the current form of the president’s spending bill. He pointed to expected cuts to Medicaid that he said would “result in tens of billions of dollars in lost funding for North Carolina, including our hospitals and rural communities”.
The retirement of Tillis could make it easier for Democrats to flip the seat in 2026, with some in the party hoping to encourage former governor Roy Cooper to enter the race.
A similar dynamic could be at play next year in Omaha, Nebraska, where the sitting Republican congressman and frequent Trump critic Don Bacon has reportedly decided that he will not run for re-election to the House.
Trump has backed primary challenges against Republicans who clashed with him. Notably, he endorsed Harriet Hageman’s successful push to unseat Wyoming’s former Republican congresswoman Liz Cheney, who served on a House congressional committee that investigated Trump supporters’ deadly US Capitol attack after he lost the 2020 presidential election.
Trump’s team also recently launched a group to unseat Kentucky congressman Thomas Massie, who opposed the US’s 22 June strikes on Iran’s nuclear sites. Massie also formed an alliance with the California Democratic congressman Ro Khanna to introduce a war powers resolution meant to “prohibit involvement in Iran” as well as Trump’s “big, beautiful bill”.
Chris LaCivita, senior Trump political adviser, has confirmed that he and Tony Fabrizio, another Trump adviser, would run an anti-Massie Super political action committee (Pac).
Trump’s criticism of Tillis came as the Senate voted 51-49 in favor of passing a motion to advance the budget bill. It must now clear a formal Senate vote and be returned to the lower House for approval – which Trump wants done before the July 4th holiday.
The legislation is a stuffed hamper of Republican priorities – making tax breaks from Trump’s first presidency permanent, no taxes on tips, cutbacks to Medicaid, food stamps and green energy investments, and a commitment for an additional $350bn in spending on national security and a massive increase in funding for deportations.
