Quick Hit: Sen. Thom Tillis not seeking reelection in 2026
A race already in the spotlight now thrown wide open
Yesterday, NC Republican Senator Thom Tillis announced he was not going to seek reelection in 2026.
In a statement, Tillis touted bipartisan victories and highlighted, writing in part, “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.”
Read his full statement as to why at North State Journal.
The previous day, President Donald Trump attacked at Tillis for indicating he would not be supporting Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill (OBBB), citing Medicaid changes that “would be devastating to North Carolina.”
A longer version of Tillis’ objections to the OBBB with an analysis of the Medicaid impact on NC is on Tillis’ official Senate website.
Trump followed up his initial Truth Social post about Tillis’ plan to vote against the OBBB with two additional posts, one of which implied he’d find a primary challenger for Tillis.
According to The Hill, Tillis told Trump in a text message to “start thinking about my replacement.” Allegedly, that text message to Trump was sent 6 minutes prior to the above Truth Social post by the president.
On Sunday, Trump posted again, noting Tillis was not running for reelection.
Tillis responded later that evening, taking a swipe at former Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson and Trump’s initial endorsement of Robinson at the same time.
“Minisoldr” is the handle from an email address used by former NC Lt. Gov. Robinson to post incendiary and explicit messages on adult websites over a decade ago. The account was exposed by CNN during the 2020 NC gubernatorial campaign.
Rumors had circulated that Robinson staffers had leaked the email handle to CNN, but Robinson's former chief of staff Conrad Pogorzelski refuted that, as did former staffer Patrick Riley who was targeted because he had access to Robinson's accounts.
The staff had never heard of the minisoldr account prior to the CNN story being published. Riley even provided a screen capture of an attempt to access the account's password, which gave options that directed back to Robinson's personal email address and his cell phone.
So who will get in the race?
Tillis’ announcement has tossed gasoline on a race that already had national eyeballs on it.
On the Democratic side, former statehouse senator and one-term congressman Wiley Nickel threw his hat in the ring just months after leaving Congress. He is the only Democrat with an FEC filing at this point.
Former North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper has been often mentioned as thinking about a run. Pundits have also raised the idea of NC Attorney General and former US Congressman Jeff Jackson.
On the Republican side, there have been three who have 2025-26 FEC paperwork filed: Triad area businessman Andy Nilsson, former JAG Officer and attorney Don Brown and Brooks Agnew, an author and former manufacturing engineer.
Speculation has already popped up that Lara Trump, RNC Chair Michael Whatley, or even newly minted NC Congressman Pat Harrigan would get in the race following the news Tillis was out for 2026.