President Donald Trump’s “One Big, Beautiful Bill” has already claimed its first victim. Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) made the surprise announcement that he will retire from Congress rather than vote for his party’s steaming pile of turd legislation that will kick millions off their health care, slash nutritional assistance, raise energy costs, and make college more expensive.
Tillis announced his retirement on Sunday, after he voted against proceeding to debate on OBBB, saying he could not support legislation that would lead hundreds of thousands of North Carolinians to lose their Medicaid coverage. Senate Republicans are rushing to pass the bill before the July 4 recess, even though everyone from hospitals, to Republican-leaning building trades, to energy groups have warned of the damaging effects the legislation would have if it became law.
“What do I tell 663,000 people in two years, three years, when President Trump breaks his promise by pushing them off of Medicaid because the funding’s not there anymore, guys?” Tillis said in an angry speech on the Senate floor on Sunday. “The people in the White House advising the president, they’re not telling him that the effect of this bill is to break a promise.”
Tillis’ vote led Trump to slam him and declare he would be finding a primary opponent to oust Tillis from the seat.
“Numerous people have come forward wanting to run in the Primary against ‘Senator Thom’ Tillis. 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. Thank you for your attention to this matter!” Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social.
And rather than stay and fight in the primary, Tillis announced he is not seeking reelection.
“Too many elected officials are motivated by pure raw politics who really don’t give a damn about the people they promised to represent on the campaign trail. After they get elected, they don’t bother to do the hard work to research the policies they seek to implement and understand the consequences those policies could have on that young adult living in a trailer park, struggling to make ends meet,” Tillis wrote in a statement. “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. That is true since the choice is between spending another six years navigating the political theatre and partisan gridlock in Washington or spending that time with the love of my life Susan, our two children, three beautiful grandchildren, and the rest of our extended family back home. It’s not a hard choice, and I will not be seeking re-election.”
Tillis also threw shade at Trump in a subsequent tweet, razzing Trump for having once supported former North Carolina Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson—who lost the 2024 North Carolina governor’s race in a landslide in November after CNN uncovered racist and sexually explicit comments Robinson made on a porn website forum.
“Thanks for the retirement wishes, Mr. President, looking forward to working with you for a successful 2026. Word to the wise, let’s avoid minisoldr,” Tillis wrote, referring to the screen name Robinson used on the porn forum.
North Carolina’s Senate contest was already set to be one of the most competitive on the map in the 2026 midterms, even before Tillis’ announcement. Former Democratic Rep. Wiley Nickel has already announced he’s running, while former Gov. Roy Cooper is mulling a bid.
But now that it’s an open-seat race, Democrats have a greater chance of flipping the seat—especially if Republicans nominate a hard-right Trumper who does not fit the purple nature of the Tar Heel state.
And NBC News’ Vaughn Hillyard reported that Lara Trump, wife of Eric Trump, is “strongly considering” a bid, and would likely clear the field if she did decide to jump in the race.
Lara Trump—who earlier this year was seeking an appointment to a Senate seat in Florida, hundreds of miles away from North Carolina—represents the exact kind of figure who would make the seat more difficult for Republicans to hold if she was the nominee.
“Lara Trump v. Cooper would be over before it begins. That might be one of the worst imaginable candidates, other than minisoldr,” elections analyst Lakshya Jain wrote in a post on X.
Cook Political Report currently rates the race a toss-up.