共和党参议员托姆·蒂利斯周日表示，他明年将不会在北卡罗来纳州竞选连任。这一惊人的声明是在奥巴马当选总统几小时后发布的唐纳德·特朗普他说，在参议员投票反对将特朗普的“一个美丽的大法案”提交参议院投票后，他将开始派出初选挑战者与蒂利斯竞选。
这位参议员在一份冗长的声明中宣布了他的决定，称排除竞选第三个任期“不是一个艰难的选择”，因为他已经完成了“在华盛顿的政治舞台和党派僵局中导航”
蒂利斯致力于反对共和党的大账单——特朗普国内政策议程的基石——因为它的医疗补助条款。周六晚上，在投票反对将该法案提交参议院最终审议后，他引起了总统的愤怒。
特朗普迅速做出回应，在他的社交媒体平台上表示，他将在未来几周与人们会面，考虑谁将在共和党初选中挑战蒂利斯。
特朗普指责蒂利斯“哗众取宠”，说他“为美国，为北卡罗来纳州的美好人民犯了一个大错误!”
特朗普周日下午晚些时候在社交媒体平台上对蒂利斯的声明做出了回应，称这是“好消息!”
在他的声明中，蒂利斯将自己比作前民主党参议员乔·曼钦(Joe Manchin)和凯尔斯滕·西内马(Kyrsten Sinema)，这两位议员在党内领导人多年的反对下，特别是在保留参议院阻挠议事的问题上，在上个周期退休。
“在他们勇敢地拒绝向党内大佬屈服后，他们受到了冷落，”蒂利斯写道，并补充道:“越来越明显的是，那些愿意接受两党合作、妥协并展示独立思考的领导人正在成为濒危物种。”
“这凸显了美国政治中最大形式的虚伪。当人们看到另一边的独立思考时，他们欢呼雀跃。但当这些人看到独立思考来自他们这边时，他们会鄙视、排斥甚至指责他们，”蒂利斯写道。
几周来，蒂利斯一直是参议院版本的和解法案供应商税收提案的坚定反对者，他说，根据该条款，北卡罗来纳州将失去大部分医疗补助覆盖范围。
据报道，在上周的一次闭门共和党会议上，蒂利斯指出，根据参议院的提议，超过60万北卡罗来纳州人的医疗补助覆盖范围将面临风险，并要求他的同事考虑该政策将如何影响他们自己的州——甚至提供打印在讲义上的州具体数据。
他警告他的同事，如果参议院的医疗补助提供者税收框架成为法律，将会产生政治影响。
“我只是鼓励其他成员去他们的州看看……蒂利斯本周在国会山对记者表示:“看看拟议中的削减，告诉我你能否在正常的业务过程中吸收它，在许多情况下，你会发现你不能。”
“我认为这是一个明智政策的问题，这就是我在这里的所有建议，”他补充说。
自总统1月上任以来，蒂利斯也是少数几个对特朗普持批评态度的共和党议员之一，即使是轻微的批评。
今年2月，在特朗普称乌克兰总统弗拉基米尔·泽连斯基为独裁者并暗示乌克兰开始与俄罗斯开战后，蒂利斯走得比任何共和党人都远，他在参议院的一次演讲中直接援引特朗普的名字，抨击俄罗斯总统弗拉基米尔·普京，并呼吁全面防御乌克兰。
“我是共和党人。我支持川普总统，我相信他在国家安全方面的大多数政策都是正确的，我相信他的直觉非常好，但我要告诉你的是，无论谁相信弗拉基米尔·普京在未来稳定的全球中有任何空间，他们最好去乌克兰，他们最好去欧洲，他们最好花时间了解这个人是癌症，是我一生中对民主的最大威胁，”蒂利斯在他激烈的演讲中说。
蒂利斯的退休在北卡罗莱纳州这个日益紫色化的州肯定会引起一场竞争激烈、昂贵和拥挤的初选。众议员威利·尼克尔已经宣布了他在民主党方面的竞选，许多人将受欢迎的前州长罗伊·库珀视为另一个选择。
GOP Sen. Tillis won't run for reelection after Trump primary threat
Republican Sen. Thom Tillis said Sunday that he will not seek reelection next year in battleground North Carolina. The stunning announcement comes just hours after PresidentDonald Trumpsaid he will start fielding primary challengers to run against Tillis following the senator's vote against advancing Trump's One Big Beautiful Bill Act to a vote in the Senate.
The senator, in a lengthy statement announcing his decision, said it was “not a hard choice” to rule out running for a third term as he was finished with “navigating the political theatre and partisan gridlock in Washington.”
Tillis is committed to opposing the Republican megabill -- a cornerstone of Trump’s domestic policy agenda -- because of its Medicaid provisions. He caught the president's ire on Saturday night after voting against moving the legislation to final consideration in the Senate.
Trump responded quickly, saying on his social media platform that he’d be meeting with people in the coming weeks to consider who would challenge Tillis in a Republican primary.
Trump accused Tillis of "grandstanding" and said that he was "making a BIG MISTAKE for America, and the Wonderful People of North Carolina!"
Trump reacted to Tillis' announcement late Sunday afternoon on his social media platform, calling it "Great News!"
In his announcement, Tillis likened himself to former Democratic Sens. Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema -- two lawmakers who retired last cycle after years of pushback from party leaders for often bucking their caucus, particularly on the issue of preserving the Senate filibuster.
"They were shunned after they courageously refused to cave to their party bosses," Tillis wrote, adding: "It's become increasingly evident that leaders who are willing to embrace bipartisanship, compromise, and demonstrate independent thinking are becoming an endangered species."
“It underscores the greatest form of hypocrisy in American politics. When people see independent thinking on the other side, they cheer. But when those very same people see independent thinking coming from their side, they scorn, ostracize, and even censure them,” Tillis wrote.
Tillis had for weeks been a staunch opponent to the Senate version of the reconciliation bill’s provider tax proposal -- a provision that he said North Carolina would lose the most Medicaid coverage under.
During a closed-door GOP conference meeting last week, Tillis is reported to have made the point that Medicaid coverage for more than 600,000 North Carolinians would be at risk under the Senate's proposal and asked his colleagues to consider how the policy would impact their own states -- even providing state-specific data printed out on a handout.
He warned his colleagues of the political implications of the Senate's Medicaid provider tax framework if it becomes law.
“I just encouraged other members to go to their states and just measure how….take a look at the proposed cuts and tell me whether or not you can absorb it in the normal course of business, and in many cases, you're gonna find that you can’t,” Tillis told reporters at the Capitol this week.
“I think it's a matter of doing smart policy, and that's all I'm suggesting here,” he added.
Tillis has also been one of the few Republican lawmakers who have been -- even if slightly -- critical of Trump since the president took office in January.
In February, after Trump called Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy a dictator and suggested that Ukraine started the war with Russia, Tillis went farther than any Republican was willing to go, directly invoking Trump's name in a Senate floor speech that bashed Russian President Vladimir Putin and called for a full defense of Ukraine.
"I'm a Republican. I support President Trump and I believe that most of his policies on national security are right, I believe his instincts are pretty good, but what I am telling you whoever believes that there is any space for Vladimir Putin in the future of a stable globe better go to Ukraine, they better go to Europe, they better invest the time to understand that this man is a cancer and the greatest threat to democracy in my life time," Tillis said during his fiery floor speech.
Tillis’ retirement sets up what is sure to be a competitive, expensive and crowded primary in North Carolina, an increasingly purple state. Rep. Wiley Nickel has already announced his bid on the Democratic side, with many eyeing popular former Gov. Roy Cooper as another choice.
