Senator Thom Tillis from North Carolina announced Sunday that he will not seek reelection in 2026. The announcement followed calls by President Donald Trump to for Republicans to defeat him in next year’s primaries.
Tillis was one of two Republican Senators to vote against the “Big, Beautiful Bill” on Saturday. Rand Paul from Kentucky was the other.
“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,” he said.
According to Fox News:
Tills gave a shout-out to former Sens. Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema for their unwillingness to not “cave to their party bosses to nuke the filibuster for the sake of political expediency.”
“They ultimately retired, and their presence in the Senate chamber has been sorely missed every day since,” he said.
“It underscores the greatest form of hypocrisy in American politics. When people see independent thinking on the other side, they cheer,” he continued. “But when those very same people see independent thinking coming from their side, they scorn, ostracize, and even censure them.”
He said that the choice broke down to spending time with his family, or spending another six years in Washington navigating “the political theater and partisan gridlock.”
This isn’t the first time Tillis has run afoul of the Trump administration. He orchestrated the withdrawal of Ed Martin’s nomination for U.S. Attorney by blocking his vote from committee.
Country singer John Rich even wrote a song about Tillis.