Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) announced that he is not running for reelection, after opposing President Donald Trump’s Big, Beautiful Bill due to Medicaid cuts.
In a statement issued Sunday, Tillis highlighted how he is “proud” of his career in public service. Tillis also expressed that he is “most proud” of his bipartisan victories such as “passing the first-in-the-nation eugenics compensation as Speaker, and working across the aisle in the Senate to pass the largest investment in mental health” in the history of the United States.
Tillis continued to admit that “sometimes those bipartisan initiatives got” him in trouble with his party.
“In Washington over the last few years, it’s been increasingly evident that leaders who are willing to embrace bipartisanship, compromise, and demonstrate independent thinking are becoming an endangered species,” Tillis said.
“Democrats recently lost two such leaders who were dedicated to making the Senate more of a functional and productive legislative body,” Tillis continued. “They got things done. But they were shunned after they courageously refused to 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.”
Tillis continued on to express that he was “beyond grateful for the friends” that he had made, and added that he looked forward to “continuing to serve North Carolina over the next 18 months.”
As Breitbart News reported, Tillis issued a statement Saturday expressing that he had done his “homework on behalf of North Carolinians” and was unable to support the Big, Beautiful Bill “in its current form.”
“I did my homework on behalf of North Carolinians, and I cannot support this bill in its current form,” Tillis said in a statement. “It would result in tens of billions of dollars in lost funding for North Carolina, including our hospitals and rural communities. This will force the state to make painful decisions like eliminating Medicaid coverage for hundreds of thousands in the expansion population, and even reducing critical services for those in the traditional Medicaid population.”
In response, Trump expressed in a post on Truth Social that the people of North Carolina would “not allow” Tillis to “grandstand in order to get some publicity for himself.”
“Looks like Senator Thom Tillis, as usual, wants to tell the Nation that he’s giving them a 68% Tax Increase, as opposed to the Biggest Tax Cut in American History! At the same time, he is unable to understand the importance of a Debt Extension, which Republicans gave to the Democrats just prior to the November 5th Election, because of its significance, and how important it was for the future of the U.S.A.,” Trump wrote in his post.
“Numerous people have come forward wanting to run in the Primary against ‘Senator Thom’ Tillis,” Trump wrote in another post. “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.”
