I can’t believe I’m saying this, but North Carolina voters deserve a moderate like Sen. Thom Tillis – someone who, when the time calls for it, will stand up to the president.

‘Vote-a-rama’ kicks off in the Senate for Trump’s ‘Big Beautiful Bill’
The Senate is set to vote on dozens of amendments to President Donald Trump’s ‘Big Beautiful Bill.’
- Sen. Thom Tillis, R-North Carolina, announced he will not seek reelection in 2026.
- Tillis, a moderate Republican, cited the increasing difficulty of bipartisanship and independent thinking in Washington.
- His decision follows his vote against advancing Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill” and subsequent criticism from the former president.
- Potential candidates to replace Tillis include former North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper on the Democratic side and Lara Trump or Michael Whatley on the Republican side.
We’re more than a year out from midterm elections, and my home state’s legislative slate is already getting a shake-up.
Sen. Thom Tillis, R-North Carolina, announced on Sunday, June 29, that he would not be seeking reelection in 2026, a day after he voted against advancing President Donald Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill” to the Senate floor.
The moderate senator said he would not support the bill based on how it would impact Medicaid recipients, leading Trump to say he was making a “BIG MISTAKE” for the state and country and threatened to find someone to challenge him in the Republican primary next spring.
“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 the statement announcing his decision.
I’ve never been one to feel warmly toward Tillis, but the reasoning behind his decision is shocking. If there is no room for moderates in the Republican Party, I’m worried about where the country is headed.
Tillis didn’t do me proud in North Carolina. But at least he spoke up.
Tillis did a lot to earn my distrust while serving in the North Carolina Senate. There was Amendment One, the 2012 constitutional amendment that changed the state constitution so that only marriages between men and women would be recognized. There was the 2013 motorcycle safety bill he supported, which snuck draconian restrictions on abortion access into a bill that was supposed to cover increased safety for motorcyclists.
As a U.S. senator, he has seldom been able to find his spine, like when he penned an entire op-ed for The Washington Post about how he was going to oppose Trump’s declaration of a national emergency at the southern border, only to side with the Republicans when the time came.
He condemned what happened on Jan. 6, 2021, at the U.S. Capitol but voted against the creation of a commission and Trump’s second impeachment.
So yeah, I’m not Tillis’ biggest fan. He might have come around on some issues in the past few years, like some of the bipartisan bills he worked on during President Joe Biden’s tenure, but it doesn’t erase the harm he’s done.
Yet even I know that someone willing to occasionally stand up to Trump is better than someone with unshakable loyalty to the president. If there’s no room for someone with a lukewarm relationship with Trump in the Republican Party, one must imagine that the Republican who’d come after will be a fervent supporter of the MAGA agenda.
Who will fill Tillis’ Senate seat for NC?
Of course, there’s no guarantee that Tillis will be replaced by another Republican. North Carolina Democrats gained some ground in 2024, and they could make even more gains in the midterms.
There are rumors that former Gov. Roy Cooper, who has never lost a statewide race, will throw his hat in the ring. Now, former Rep. Wiley Nickel is the only Democrat in the race.
Republicans, on the other hand, have a handful of Trump loyalists they could boost. There’s Lara Trump, the president’s daughter-in-law and onetime Republican National Committee cochair. There’s Republican National Committee Chair Michael Whatley, the former chair of the state Republican Party, who proved his loyalty to Trump after the riot at the U.S. Capitol. Either of them would likely be a puppet to the Trump administration, refusing to do anything that might upset their standing with the president.
North Carolina is a deeply purple state, one where split-ticket voting is as common as sweet tea. I can’t believe I’m saying this, but the state’s voters deserve a moderate like Tillis – someone who, when the time calls for it, will stand up to the president.
The country deserves more legislators who are willing to go against their party. I fear that who we’re about to get in Tillis’ place is someone far more extreme.
Follow USA TODAY columnist Sara Pequeño on X, formerly Twitter: @sara__pequeno