Sen. Thom Tillis Announces Retirement a Day After Trump Threatens to Primary Him Over a Medicaid Vote

On June 29, 2025, Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina announced he would not seek re-election in 2026. The announcement came a day after he was one of two Republicans to vote against advancing the Senate version of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, citing its Medicaid reductions, and after Trump posted on Truth Social that 'numerous people have come forward wanting to run in the Primary against Senator Thom Tillis.' Tillis said in his statement that leaders willing to embrace bipartisanship, compromise and independent thinking 'are becoming an endangered species,' and said he preferred to serve his remaining 18 months without the distraction of fundraising and campaigning.

The sequence is a documented instance of a president's public primary threat immediately preceding a sitting senator's exit, and it came at the exact moment the Senate was weighing the administration's central legislative priority. Other Republicans who had criticized the bill voted to advance it.

Tillis served out his term and voted against the bill's final passage. North Carolina's 2026 Senate seat became an open race.