Sen. Thom Tillis (R-North Carolina) on January 30, 2025 (Maxim Elramsisy/Shutterstock.com)
From the beginning of his tenure in the North Carolina General Assembly, it’s always been evident that Thom Tillis was not a true right-wing, authoritarian extremist.
Arch-conservative – especially on matters of taxes and economic policy? Yes. Ready to pare the social safety net to the bone and “divide and conquer” the various groups of people who find themselves relying upon it to maintain a semblance of economic security? Certainly. Happy to ram through a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage while forecasting that its demise was inevitable? Sure. Willing to swallow his pride and abandon basic personal values on a regular basis in order to assuage an above average case of political ambition? Absolutely.
But a genuine, dyed-in-the-wool, Trump and Putin-loving, immigrant-hating, LGBTQ-bashing, white/Christian nationalist MAGA-believer? No way.
Like a lot of modern conservative Republicans, Tillis has certainly blown with the winds that overtook his party the last couple of decades. And he’s probably embraced a number of positions and policies that he would have found surprising back in his early 40’s, when he commenced his political career by running for a local park board position in order to champion a public bike path.
But as he made clear on multiple occasions while serving in the North Carolina House and during his 10-plus years in Washington, Tillis’s political values and instincts were and are much more in line with the rapidly withering Bush/McCain/Romney branch of Republicanism than the Trump-as-flawless-Dear-Leader cult. While he regularly caved in to the demands of the bully-in-chief and his hench-people (on immigration, on foreign policy, on advancing unqualified buffoons to court seats and cabinet positions), you knew they were always moves of calculated – some would say cowardly — political expedience. The Trump people knew this too and clearly never trusted him.
This past weekend, Tillis finally reached his limit. Faced with voting for one of the most monstrously destructive legislative proposals in American history — a bill that will wreak havoc on his state and further empower a man who openly aspires to become a national dictator – Tillis made clear there was a limit to how far down the Trump cult rabbit hole he was ultimately willing be dragged. By voting against the president’s disastrous mega-bill and then quickly announcing his decision not to seek reelection next year, Tillis appears to have taken a big step in officially severing ties with the sect and recapturing a small sense of who he is and what he believes as he contemplates his final 18 months in office.
Of course, as mental health experts will attest, leaving a cult — like overcoming an addiction — can be a complicated, up-and-down process. This is especially true for disillusioned former true believers.
Fortunately, in this case, Tillis’s departure seems more akin to that of someone who knew all along that they needed to get away from a controlling and abusive leader, but just hated the thought of being ostracized by the community they so long inhabited and the ideals that many members of the group still nominally professed – not to mention giving up a position of political power.
But as other Republicans like former Congresswoman Liz Cheney have discovered, there can be life beyond the cult. What’s more, and this is important, unlike Cheney whose time in Congress almost immediately ended after she bravely dared to cross Trump, Tillis is now a free man with a full year-and-a-half left in office to do and say what he believes, and maybe just maybe, to convince other disaffected Republican lawmakers who know the emperor is naked to, at least occasionally, join him.
Indeed, with partisan margins so razor thin on Capitol Hill, Tillis now has the opportunity to be the most important and impactful politician for good from North Carolina since Sam Ervin helped spearhead the demise of Richard Nixon a half-century ago.
For instance, as University of Richmond law professor and judiciary watcher Carl Tobias told NC Newsline Sunday, now that he’s free from reelection concerns, Tillis is well-positioned to stymie some of Trump’s looniest court nominees from advancing in the Senate Judiciary Committee – a body in which the GOP holds only a 12-10 advantage.
If only Tillis had had his epiphany before caving on the execrable nomination of Pete Hegseth as defense secretary.
Could all of this be wishful thinking? Maybe.
Blood runs thick and Tillis has already taken to social media to say that he wants a Republican to win his seat next year. But given the state of the North Carolina GOP, that will ultimately mean supporting a craven Trump toady who will be commanded to specifically condemn Tillis, so who knows how enthusiastically he’ll stick to that stance?
Whatever the state of Senator Tillis’s psyche at what is no doubt a difficult personal moment, he’s clearly come to a fork in the road on the overriding issue of our times: Trumpism. In one direction lies the rocky path of strength, honor, morality and making an important difference for the nation’s future that would be long remembered. Down the other lies the path of acquiescence, personal ease and comfort, and utter political and historical irrelevance. Stay tuned.
NC Newsline is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. NC Newsline maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Rob Schofield for questions: info@ncnewsline.com.