Sen. Thom Tillis isn’t on North Carolina ballots this year. But his shadow still looms over the state’s Senate race — and is shaping how both parties are approaching a pivotal general election for control of the chamber.
Voters in the Tar Heel State head to the polls on Tuesday to select their nominees for November’s race to succeed Tillis, who sent shockwaves through Raleigh and Washington last year when, following a blistering showdown with President Donald Trump, he announced he wouldn’t run for a third term.
His departure made for a high-stakes race in a key battleground state: The seat is a top pickup opportunity for Senate Democrats as they try to claw back into the majority, and a locale Republicans will have to defend to keep control of the chamber.
The results of the primaries on Tuesday won’t be a surprise: Michael Whatley, the Trump-endorsed ex-chair of the Republican National Committee, is on a glidepath to the GOP nomination, while former Democratic North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper is running unopposed.
But the unfolding primary race — and looming general election — underscore an emerging theme: Republicans are betting on MAGA being the answer to their North Carolina quandary, and Democrats are just fine with that.
“That’s part of it,” Sen. Ted Budd, R-N.C., told MS NOW, before quickly pivoting to Whatley’s other attributes.
Tillis has a different view of how to win in North Carolina.
“I guess the Republicans who would want a purity test would want to decide whether or not they want to be right and have a Democrat elected a senator,” Tillis told MS NOW. “At the end of the day, if you don’t — if your priority is making a party feel good about you that represents only 30% of all the voters in North Carolina — then you probably ought to study math.”
“You win statewide races by appealing to a majority of the unaffiliated voters,” he added. “You lose statewide races thinking all you have to do is be in good standing with the Republican Party.”
It’s a warning born of experience — and recent history. Tillis is a Republican who is willing to break from his party on key votes, criticize Trump on matters he disagrees with and work across the aisle to craft bipartisan legislation — characteristics that run counter to the MAGA movement, and which may have hastened his retirement.
Tillis revealed in June that he wouldn’t run for re-election this year, an announcement that came one day after he said he’d vote against the GOP’s marquee reconciliation package — a position that drew intense ire from Trump.
Hours after Tillis declared his opposition, Trump on Truth Social accused the North Carolina Republican of trying to “GRANDSTAND in order to get some publicity for himself, for a possible, but very difficult Re-Election;” said Tillis was “making a BIG MISTAKE for America, and the Wonderful People of North Carolina;” and warned that he would speak to potential primary candidates to find “someone who will properly” represent North Carolina.
The next day, Tillis said he was tapping out, citing the tribal politics in Washington.
“When people see independent thinking on the other side, they cheer,” Tillis wrote in a statement. “But when those very same people see independent thinking coming from their side, they scorn, ostracize, and even censure them.”
It was a reminder of a familiar dynamic in Washington: You’re either with Trump, or he’s against you. Republicans in North Carolina are taking note.
Weeks after Tillis’s exit, Trump pre-emptively endorsed Whatley, whom he backed for RNC chair in early 2024 to oversee his third bid for the presidency. Whatley eventually jumped into the race, citing his strong Trump bonafides — and taking a veiled swipe at Tillis.
“I am honored that President Trump has asked me to run for the Senate and offered me his complete and total endorsement,” Whatley said in remarks launching his campaign. “And I am proud to stand with him and fight every single day for every family and every community.”
“President Trump deserves an ally, and North Carolina deserves a strong conservative voice in the Senate,” he continued. “I will be that voice.”
Both parties are making Tillis’s split with Trump a central theme of the race.









