(Washington) A Republican Senator from North Carolina, Thom Tillis, announced on Sunday that he would not be represented next year, after having expressed his opposition to the tax reduction and expense reduction program for President Donald Trump the day before the discounts he provides for health care programs.
His decision creates a political opportunity for the Democrats, who seek to strengthen their number in the mid-term elections in 2026, by opening a seat in a state that has long been a disputed battlefield. The Republicans have an advantage of 53 to 47 in the Senate.
Mr. Tillis, who could have run for a third term, said he was proud of his career in public service, while recognizing that the political environment is difficult for those who oppose their party.
“In Washington, it has become more and more obvious in recent years that people ready to embrace bipartisme, compromise and show independence of mind are an endangered species,” he said in a long press release.
“Sometimes these bipartisan initiatives have earned me trouble with my own party, but I would not have changed only one,” he added.
On social networks, Trump criticized Mr. Tillis for being one of the two Republican senators who voted on Saturday evening against the adoption of the huge bill.
The republican president accused Mr. Tillis of seeking to advertise himself by voting “no” and threatened to campaign against him. Trump also accused him of having done nothing to help his voters after the devastating floods last year.
“Mr. Tillis is a talkative and a complain, not a man of action,” he wrote.
Mr. Tillis became known in North Carolina when he left his job as a consultant at IBM to direct the recruitment and fund collection efforts in the Republican Party in the 2010 elections. The Republicans then won the majority in the House of Representatives and in the Senate for the first time in 140 years.
Mr. Tillis was then elected president of the House of Representatives of the State and contributed to the implementation of conservative tax policies, firearms, regulation and abortion during the four years he spent in this position.
He also contributed to the organization of a constitutional referendum aimed at prohibiting marriage between people of the same sex, which was approved by voters in 2012, but which was ultimately deemed unconstitutional by the courts.
In 2014, Mr. Tillis helped to switch control of the United States in favor of the Republican Party, after having narrowly defeated Democratic Senator Kay Hagan.
