Sen. Thom Tillis Announces Retirement After Trump Threatens Primary Race

“Leaders who are willing to embrace bipartisanship, compromise, and demonstrate independent thinking are becoming an endangered species,” the senator wrote in a statement

A day after voting against a motion to advance Donald Trump‘s legislative agenda and the president’s subsequent threat to endorse a primary challenge against him, Republican Sen. Thom Tillis announced he will not seek re-election in 2026.

“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,” the senator said in a statement explaining his move. He added that his decision was “not a hard choice” and he hopes to spend more time with his family.

Tillis opposed the Senate version of the “One Big Beautiful Bill” act in a Saturday vote, citing cuts to Medicaid that exceeded those proposed in the House version. But the House version still included steep cuts to the program, including reducing federal Medicaid payments to states by $863 billion over the next decade and measures that would cause 7.8 million Americans to become uninsured, according to Congressional Budget Office (CBO) projections. The Senate version cuts $1.1 trillion from federal health spending and would cause 11.8 million Americans to lose their health care coverage, according to CBO. The bill also includes $3.8 billion in tax cut extensions that overwhelmingly benefit the wealthy and would increase the deficit by $3.3 trillion.

Tillis has been a proponent of bipartisanship and in his statement hailed “bipartisan victories” such as his work to “pass the largest investment in mental health in American history, passing the Respect for Marriage Act and monumental infrastructure investments, and reestablishing the Senate NATO Observer Group.” He has supported a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants and voted for then-president Joe Biden’s $1 trillion infrastructure bill in 2021.

“Sometimes those bipartisan initiatives got me into trouble with my own party, but I wouldn’t have changed a single one,” he said.

Tillis has also been a staunch opponent of abortion, earning an A+ rating from anti-abortion group Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America.

His departure highlights the Republican Party’s dramatic shift to the right and growing intolerance of views that are even mildly critical Trump and his agenda. Tillis was one of only two Republicans who voted against moving the domestic policy bill forward. Sens. Lisa Murkowski, Susan Collins, and Josh Hawley, who previously criticized the bill, all flipped and voted to advance it ahead of a July 4 deadline set by Trump.

Tillis’ no vote drew strong and immediate criticism from the president, who threatened to endorse a primary challenger against the senator.

“Numerous people have come forward wanting to run in the Primary against ‘Senator Thom’ Tillis,” Trump wrote Saturday night on Truth Social. “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.”

On Sunday, Trump posted that “Tillis is a talker and complainer, NOT A DOER!” and called him “even worse than Rand ‘Fauci’ Paul!”

Tillis said he looks “forward to continuing to serve North Carolina over the next 18 months… solely focusing on producing meaningful results without the distraction of raising money or campaigning for another election” and “having the pure freedom to call the balls and strikes as I see fit.”

Tillis joined the House of representatives in 2007 and became speaker in 2011. He was elected to the Senate in 2014.

North Carolina’s 2026 senate race is expected to be a heated midterm battleground as Republicans and Democrats compete for a majority. Republicans currently hold a slim 53-47 majority in the Senate.

Last week, before Tillis announced his retirement, Democratic National Committee Chair Ken Martin told NC Newsline that the state’s race represents “one of our best pickup opportunities in the Senate” in 2026.