{"id":26151,"date":"2025-06-30T03:44:22","date_gmt":"2025-06-30T03:44:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/26151\/"},"modified":"2025-06-30T03:44:22","modified_gmt":"2025-06-30T03:44:22","slug":"gop-sen-thom-tillis-passes-on-reelection-bid-after-stoking-trumps-ire-by-voting-against-big-beautiful-bill","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/26151\/","title":{"rendered":"GOP Sen. Thom Tillis passes on reelection bid after stoking Trump\u2019s ire by voting against ‘big beautiful bill’"},"content":{"rendered":"

North Carolina Sen. Thom Tillis announced Sunday that he won\u2019t seek reelection after drawing President Trump\u2019s wrath over the One Big Beautiful Bill Act<\/a> \u2014 stoking speculation that Trump\u2019s daughter-in-law Lara may potentially vie for the seat.<\/p>\n

Just before his sudden announcement, the Republican senator had rankled Trump by voting against advancing the marquee Trump legislation<\/a> because of his concerns about the Medicaid provisions in the megabill.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn Washington over the last few years, it\u2019s become increasingly evident that leaders who are willing to embrace bipartisanship, compromise, and demonstrate independent thinking are becoming an endangered species,\u201d Tillis said in a statement Sunday.<\/p>\n

North Carolina GOP Sen. Thom Tillis announced Sunday he would not be seeking reelection in 2026. CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images<\/p>\n

Tillis was ripped by Trump late Saturday in a lengthy Truth Social post, where the president said he was making a \u201cBIG MISTAKE.\u201d Bloomberg via Getty Images<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not a hard choice, and I will not be seeking re-election.\u201d<\/p>\n

After GOP Sen. Susan Collins\u2019 seat in Maine, Tillis was widely viewed as the next most vulnerable incumbent senator. Republicans will have to defend 22 of the 35 Senate seats up for grabs<\/a> in 2026, compared to the Democrats\u2019 13.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Shortly after Tillis\u2019 shock announcement, rumors swirled that the president\u2019s daughter-in-law, Lara Trump, may run for his open seat. The former Republican National Committee co-chair was born in\u00a0Wilmington, NC.<\/p>\n

She has previously faced speculation that she may try to enter Old North State politics, though she declined to do so in the 2022 cycle when former Sen. Richard Burr\u2019s (R-NC) seat opened up.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not a hard choice, and I will not be seeking re-election,\u201d Tillis said Sunday, Getty Images<\/p>\n

\u201cA source close to the Trump family says Lara Trump is \u2018strongly considering jumping in the race,\u2019 \u201d NBC reported<\/a>. <\/p>\n

\u201cAsked about the odds that she runs for #NCSEN to replace Tillis, the source says: \u2018I\u2019d put it as high as one could be considering it\u2026The race will be over before it begins.\u2019 \u201c<\/p>\n

Speculation has also mounted that\u00a0RNC Chair Michael Whatley, who previously led the state\u2019s Republican Party, could pursue Tillis\u2019 seat.<\/p>\n

Illustration of the breakdown of the big beautiful bill\u2019s taxes, new spending, and cuts and restrictions.<\/p>\n

North Carolina is one of the top recent seven battleground states. While the president won the state in November, Republicans were dealt a blow when GOP former Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson got\u00a0shellacked\u00a0in the governor\u2019s race. Robinson had been dogged by a scandal after his\u00a0alleged past messages on the porn site Nude Africa resurfaced.<\/p>\n

Tillis, who was previously state speaker of the House, was first elected to the US Senate<\/a> in 2014 and is in his second term. Conservative critics had mused about backing a primary effort against him.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The North Carolina Republican alluded to former Sens. Kyrsten Sinema\u2019s (I-Ariz.) and Joe Manchin\u2019s (I-WV) departure from the Senate<\/a> and grumbled about partisan politics in his statement.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen people sue 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 even censure them,\u201d Tillis bemoaned. \u201cToo many elected officials are motivated by pure raw politics who really don\u2019t give a damn about the people they promised to represent on the campaign trail.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAs many of my colleagues have noticed over the last year, and at times even joked about, I haven\u2019t exactly been excited about running for another term. That is true since the choice is between spending another six years navigating the political theatre and partisan gridlock<\/a> in Washington or spending that time with the love of my life Susan, our two children, three beautiful grandchildren.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"North Carolina Sen. Thom Tillis announced Sunday that he won\u2019t seek reelection after drawing President Trump\u2019s wrath over…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":26152,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5122],"tags":[5229,69,15669,405,403,5226,5225,519,5228,5227,80,5620,16854,23023,16538,67,586,132,5230,68,1154,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-26151","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-donald-trump","10":"tag-government-spending","11":"tag-new-york","12":"tag-new-york-city","13":"tag-newyork","14":"tag-newyorkcity","15":"tag-north-carolina","16":"tag-ny","17":"tag-nyc","18":"tag-politics","19":"tag-republicans","20":"tag-senate","21":"tag-senators","22":"tag-thom-tillis","23":"tag-united-states","24":"tag-united-states-of-america","25":"tag-unitedstates","26":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","27":"tag-us","28":"tag-us-news","29":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114770261307137875","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26151","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26151"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26151\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26152"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26151"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26151"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26151"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}