With Election Day little more than a month away, Republican US Sen. Thom Tillis delivered a remarkably blunt assessment Sunday of Republican Michael Whatley’s chances of succeeding him in the US Senate.
Tillis stopped short of saying that Republicans should give up on the North Carolina race, but he came pretty close.
Appearing Sunday, Sept. 27, on CNN’s “State of the Union,” Tillis said Republican leaders need to look at the polling and decide where their campaign money has the best chance of keeping Republicans in control of the Senate.
“If we have a path to victory, then we double down on it,” Tillis said. “If we don’t, we move where we have the opportunity.”
CNN host Jake Tapper then asked Tillis directly whether the data showed that North Carolina should no longer be a top Republican priority. Tillis responded that when an average of polls has a candidate trailing by high single digits or double digits, “it’s approaching a point where it’s going to be difficult to make it up.”
That’s a somewhat extraordinary assessment coming from the Republican who currently holds the seat Whatley is trying to win.
Tillis emphasized that he wasn’t declaring the North Carolina race over. He noted that elections can change quickly and candidates can make mistakes – but his larger point was that the National Republican Senatorial Committee has a limited amount of money and its primary objective should be maintaining the Republican Senate majority rather than protecting any individual candidate.
Tillis pointed to his own 2014 race against Democratic US Sen. Kay Hagan. Tillis said on the Sunday morning show that Republican officials questioned late in that campaign whether they should continue investing in North Carolina, and he told them that if they didn’t believe he had a path to victory they should put the money elsewhere.
They ultimately stayed in the race, and Tillis won.
This time, however, Tillis suggested Republicans also need to concentrate on races in Maine, Alaska and Ohio, along with other states becoming competitive.
The comments come as Whatley – the former chairman of both the Republican National Committee and the North Carolina Republican Party – continues to closely associate his campaign with President Donald Trump.
Tillis has publicly encouraged Whatley to establish more independence from Trump. Whatley has instead emphasized their relationship.
At Trump’s Sept. 16 rally in Whatley’s hometown of Gastonia, Whatley recalled being asked to help Trump’s first presidential campaign in North Carolina in 2015.
Whatley said he agreed because he believed in what Trump was proposing and he added that, 11 years later, “I am still with that guy.”
Ahead of Trump’s Gastonia visit, Whatley also posted that “President Trump needs an ally in the Senate and North Carolina needs a fighter.”
Trump has strongly backed Whatley: Whatley entered the Senate race after Tillis announced he wouldn’t seek a third term, and Trump endorsed Whatley as his preferred successor.
Trump traveled to Gastonia to campaign for him Sept. 16, and Vice President JD Vance appeared in Greensboro for Whatley five days after that.
Tillis suggested Sunday that Republicans’ insistence on near-total loyalty to Trump may itself be creating political problems. He pointed in particular to Texas, where Trump opposed longtime Republican US Sen. John Cornyn and supported Attorney General Ken Paxton.
Tillis called Trump’s decision regarding Cornyn a “colossal mistake” and he added that Republicans wouldn’t be spending enormous amounts of money defending Texas if Cornyn were the nominee.
Tillis also criticized what he described as Republican “loyalty oaths” to Trump – arguing that Republican officeholders who support Trump almost all the time shouldn’t be targeted just because of the relatively few occasions when they disagree with him.
Such expectations, Tillis said, are “unrealistic” and “unsustainable,” and can cause Republicans to lose elections.
Tillis also corrected Tapper’s characterization that Trump forced him out of the Senate race.
Tillis said that he was already leaning toward retirement and joked that Trump simply gave him “a good opportunity to announce my retirement.”
The polling helps explain Tillis’ concern about the North Carolina race. A High Point University Poll released Thursday, Sept. 24, found former Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper leading Whatley 50 percent to 42 percent among likely North Carolina voters. Another 3 percent supported another candidate and 5 percent were undecided.
The same HPU poll in August found Cooper ahead 50 percent to 45 percent – meaning Whatley’s position in the university’s polling has worsened during the final months of the campaign rather than improved.
Earlier polling also showed Cooper ahead. An Emerson College poll had Cooper leading 47 percent to 41 percent and showed a major difference in name recognition between the two candidates.
Cooper, who served two terms as governor and previously four terms as state attorney general, is better known statewide than Whatley.
Prediction markets have moved even further toward Cooper, although those markets are wagers by traders rather than scientific surveys of voters.
As of the weekend, North Carolina Senate contracts on Kalshi were trading at about 93 cents for Cooper and 7 cents for Whatley, with more than $2.2 million traded in the market. Polymarket showed a similarly large gap. However, those prices can change rapidly as traders react to polls, news and campaign developments.
Whatley still has several factors working in his favor: North Carolina hasn’t elected a Democratic US senator since Kay Hagan won in 2008, and Trump carried the state in 2016, 2020 and 2024. Trump and national Republicans are also actively campaigning for Whatley, and more than a month remains before the Nov. 3 election.
But Tillis’ comments Sunday indicate that at least one prominent North Carolina Republican believes time may be running out for Whatley to demonstrate that the race remains worth a major national investment.
National reports last week raised questions about whether Republicans were preparing to shift resources away from North Carolina. Politico reported that NRSC Chairman Tim Scott had identified seven states as spending priorities without including North Carolina. The NRSC strongly disputed that report, saying Scott had made no spending announcement and had praised Whatley’s polling momentum.
For Tillis, the question now isn’t simply whether Whatley can still win North Carolina. The question is whether Republicans trying to preserve their Senate majority can afford to bet that he will.
I supported Thom Tillis, and for good reasons.
As a conservative, I appreciated his generally conservative voting record on taxes, regulation, Second Amendment rights, immigration, and the judiciary.
He was a strong advocate for North Carolina’s military installations, defense industry and economic interests, and he brought considerable legislative experience to the Senate.
I also respected that Tillis was willing, at times, to break with his own party when he believed constitutional principles, institutional checks and balances, or the Senate’s role required it.
On foreign policy, he generally favored a strong national defense.
Most importantly, Tillis showed that being a Republican did not necessarily mean marching in lockstep with the party. That independence was a big reason I supported him.
our political structure limits/restricts independent candidates getting votes from the unaffiliated MAJORITY or the two minority parties. we need one ‘site’ where we can see the actual ballot & candidates bio & platform
Tillis was given spot in the senate after Kay’s failing health He stared off good but got into it with Trump and realized his political career was over. So he turned on the entire Republican Party. Everything he says or does now are the babbling of an angry short term senator who will be gone soon and disappear into the background. What’s the old saying about “couldn’t win dog catcher in a one man race” ? That’s him now trying to get some shots in before his microphone is taken away completely. Good riddance
I make the assumption that people like Tillis realize they are outside the party’s good graces, so they announce retirement and then speak their mind. I don’t think they are vindictive, they just no longer need to tow the party line, so they speak freely.
It’s just evidence of how too many politicians put party before their own personal principles.
That information is available from the Guilford County Board of elections.
He will be missed. I was also a fan as he we Pro NC far more than pro party. It’s also why I support Cooper over Whately.
60% of NC voters believe Cooper would support the Democratic Socialists of America’s policy priorities.
Based off what? Conservative propoganda? His policy statements clearly point to more bipartisanship so i will go with that over propoganda.
A Carolina Journal poll.
His policy statements are intended to get him elected. What he says and what he would do are probably not the same.
Oh so speculation not actual facts or evidence. Got it.
Cooper is in it for COOPER and his buddies. Surely, you understand this. Look at his record.
Vote Whatley for NC Senate!
You have shown nothing to back that statement.
Ignore there lies in political ads. Vote Cooper
Buddies? What are you talking about?
do majorities get to rule in your ‘game’. i am in that 60% majority u will not gerrymander away !
And just look at what Cooper not only refused to support when he was Governor. He actually vetoed the Voter ID Biil which had bipartisan support. It finally passed over his veto with a major majority vote.
Why would you veto a Voter ID law if you weren’t trying to cheat?
Because you dont beleive it is needed and there is a chance you exlude a small percentage of NC voters from voting. Thats why. I dont necessarly agree but thst is the valid rationale.
national defense ? where/when ? Tripoli, Mexico,Philippines, Korea, Granada, Nicaragua, Afghanistan, Iraq, Venezuela, Greenland, Iran, Ukraine, Israel, Space . . . ? our city streets?
I can’t see voting for Whately, who seems to offer little original thinking on what NC needs to recover from the failures of Trump’s war with Iran. Ranting about crime feels like an effort to avoid the elephant in the room: Trump’s economic failures.
Trump has no real economic failures! Only the fact that Iran has held out far longer than any knowledgeable person could have predicted. Trump WILL take out Iran. We just all pray that it happens sooner, rather than later!
And i would remind voters that the last several Presidents have promised to deal with Iran, but none ever did!
I would consider being responsible for about $10 Trillion of national debt to be an economic failure of any President, and a disaster from one who still wants to raise the debt limit another $5 Trillion.
No, all knowlegeable people had historically advise against war with Iran for this very reason. It was well understood how Iran would act to defend itself but threatening the strait.
His other failures are his failed tarrifs strategy, his failing trade wars with long term alies now seeking other trading partners, his ignoring the affordability issues and its impact on working Americans, and lastly his ignoring the housing crisis and the spike in long term interest rates. If not fornthe AI bubble we would likely be in far more trouble economically.
Hope that helps.
Two points:
Lincoln’s tariffs were one of the main causes of the War Between the States. This fact has been dismissed by Southern haters who must keep slavery front and center. Well, now we know that tariffs are a big deal now as then. Tariffs are protectionists’ tools. Lincoln was a protectionist for the New England manufacturers at the expense of the South.
The housing crises’ primary cause is Biden’s and the Democrats’ illegal immigration policy, supply and demand. While Democrats wanted more votes, illegal immigration was at the expense of American citizens. How more selfish can the Democrats get…power, power, and more power.
Roy Cooper’s policies favored illegal immigration to satisfy his donors.
Cast your vote for Michael Whatley to keep deportations moving forward.
Your claim of Tariffs being source of Civil war doesn’t add up as remotely true: The biggest problem is chronology. The Morrill Tariff was passed on March 2, 1861, before Lincoln was inaugurated, and was signed by outgoing President James Buchanan, not Lincoln. By then, seven Southern states had already seceded: South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana and Texas.
Also note that I love the South and am a very proud southerner and our southern way of life, yet I fully support historians stated fact that the civil war was about slavery. Easiest supporting fact to back that statement is found in Mississippi’s 1861 declaration of secession that said: “Our position is thoroughly identified with the institution of slavery”
Why deny history? You can be a very proud southerner and not deny the facts of history. Weird to believe otherwise.
LOL, we have deported millions of immigrants….yet housing prices are not coming down. Suppy remains well below demand. What a joke of belief to still have given that very simple fact. Another fact that makes your claim of Biden being fault of housing crisis is even more simple: The housing shortage predates Biden by many years. Freddie Mac estimated a 3.8-million-unit shortage in 2020, before Biden took office. The final fact to note is that immigrants make up almost 30% of the housing construction workforce so their leaving the US has actually hurt the housing supply more than any minor impact of immigrants’ demand for housing declining.
No politician right or left supports illegal immigration. That is why democrats tried to actually fix the long outdated immigration laws that republicans yet again have ignored given they hold the House and Senate and White House. If they actually cared about immigration, why not fix the laws that allowed the problem to begin with…….hmmmmm
Vote Cooper who wants real change and improvement in immigration laws and understands the real complex reasons for the housing crisis.
Cheers
i don’t understand all the moaning and crying over the interest rates. Go back to to the 70’s and 80’s see what they were then. My first home loan was 18% and I had a good credit score.
The Iran war has been a disaster, as all wars are. Iran is a proud country filled with intelligent people who are resilient. Remember Persia. Islam holds them back.
Trump listened to the Zionists, the super wealthy Jews in the US (think Sam Altman and Miriam Edelson,) and the Israeli government. They are not Trump’s friends and do not operate in the best interest of the US. They are moneybags who use their money to their own end, not Trump’s end, not America’s end but their own end. What Trump most likely failed to realize, these pro Israelis are not America first, they are Israel first. Edelson was born in Israel and has proclaimed that is where her heart is. She has dual citizenship. They are not onboard with Trump’s policies except for Israel. Whatever happens, they are insulated by their billions. But the average American shares the consequences of the war with Iran.
What to do now? End the war with Iran at once. Slide out as diplomatically as possible. Cut our losses, admit the war was a mistake, and brush those wealthy Jews to the side including Israel. And tell your son-in-law to get out of the way.
And speaking of Sam Altman, somehow, he has a nonprofit tied to his business, CEO of OpenAI. I don’t suggest that I know the details of the nonprofit, but I do know that it should be investigated. It is my understanding the OpenAI was started as a nonprofit.
Ending the war with Iran would be of great help to Michael Whatley. Vote Whatley to help end the Israeli-induced war with Iran.
Tillis makes a good point about races being affected by complete loyalty to Trump, like Paxton in TX. TX should not be a place where RNC defensive cash has to flow. Back when Mitch McConnell was high profile in the Senate when the Republicans suffered in midterms, he made the statement that races were being lost due to the poor quality of candidates, which was a “Mitch slap” to Trump’s rubber stamp picks who lost. In TX, George Bush just refused to raise any money for Paxton. At least you can hand it to Whatley, his wife hasn’t filed to divorce him on biblical grounds.
During his 2015 presidential campaign announcement, Trump promised to eliminate the entire U.S. national debt—which was then around $19 trillion
Until Biden assumed office, the Democratic presidential policy on illegal immigration matched the policy of all earlier U.S. presidents; their policy was to enforce the law. The law was to prevent people from entering the country illegally.
The trick to immigration is and always will be asylum requests. Trump ignores this law as well as many others. Biden actually wanted to fix the law versus just ignore it. Most republicans did too until Trump made it a loyalty test.
Cheers
‘asylum requests’? hand’m a weapon & send them back – called ‘offence’. every asylum seeker is a ‘vote’ for us to invade schijthole
Professor, you are delusional.
This is well established fact. Bipartisan bill was going to finally close the asylum loophole and Trump told republicans to vote against it and they followed his order. Then had them lie about how the bill would actually work.
Cheers
Tillis ran as a Republican, but he is really a Democrat at heart. He has cleared the way for Cooper to continue in politics. Cooper will sail into the U. S. Senate.
Heritage Action scores his voting record the same as Senater Burr. Do you consider Burr a Democrat?
I think many politicians vote one way and think another for political reasons. Comparing Burr and Tillis is like comparing apples and oranges. They are both fruits but yet they are different.
They voted very similarly in congress. I think that is the best evidence that you are wrong on this point. The split with Tillis was the BBB where Tillis understood how that bill would hurt people in North Carolina by removing their access to healthcare. Prior to that, they voted mostly in the lock step. At some point a politician needs to vote in line with their principles and not with the party.
When in the House, Burr supported Congressional term limits. As soon as Burr was elected to the Senate, he made an about face, opposing term limits. Tillis has always opposed term limits.
Politics is a gravy train. That’s why Blacks, Muslims, and Socialists are getting in on the act. That’s a powerful reason for supporting term limits.
How do you keep trying to make this about race? I was co.paring voting records of our two senators and you make it abjut race? Weird.
I didn’t know socialists had a race.
I believe Trump did all he could to run Tillis out of office, because Tillis was too independent, too moderate for MAGA. I think the current polling reflects how most North Carolinians feel about that.
can he possibly run as an Independent ?
He was censured by the NCGOP. He opposed several Trump nominees and initiatives. His tenure can’t end soon enough
Never was a fan of Tillis but the article is a good one.
Sadly, I believe Cooper will be elected which will not be good for the average NC citizen. He will vote on the side of increased taxes possibly going after your social security. Betting he will be a strong voice for DSA. He won’t be any better of a senator than he was a governor.
You got that right!
professor = Chris
When are people going to realize NORTH CAROLINA is a Red State
It is only Red by sense of gerrymandering of voting districts for the state legislator. There are about the same number of registered Republicans and Democrats and Independents out numbers them each by ~ 25%. The real tell that NC isn’t a Red state is that during the 2000s there has only been one term of a Republican Governor. The rest have all been Democrats. Yet NC has voted for Trump three times I think.
I think the evidence says we are purple. Not red or blue.
Will be interesting how much the Republicans lose the rural vote in NC due to challenges farming has face under the Trump administration.
Hope that helps.
NC has had a Democrat in the Governor’s office for most of the last 2 decades. Since that is a statewide election that can’t be gerrymandered, I think it is disingenuous to say NC is a Red State. Dark purple maybe?
DP Patriot:
According to the NC State Board of Elections Voter Registration Statistics, out of 7,860.992 registered voters there are 2,329,597 Republicans, 2,324,413 Democrats, and the rest are Unaffiliated, Green, and Libertarian voters.
These statistics are up to date as of 9/26/2026. This is why NC is often referred to as a purple state and a swing state. The Democrats and Republicans are 50-50 and the largest bloc of voters are Independents and others.
Now if you are talking about certain regions of the state, like Eastern NC, you may be right.
Nevertheless the numbers speak to the importance of Independents like me. That’s where the “swing” comes in on the final vote tallies.
Roy Cooper keeps telling us the Democratic Party is a coalition of a lot of different groups, and the DSA is just one of them. Here’s my problem with that. For years, progressives have let our young people be taught how wonderful socialism is, but not how badly it’s failed every time it’s been tried. Even the Scandinavian countries, the ones everybody points to as proof it works, ran a capitalist-socialist mix for a while and then had to back away from it to survive.
Now the DSA, fueled by those young voters, is being allowed to operate as a wing of the Democratic Party. Cooper and a lot of other Democrats say they don’t agree with DSA policies, but they won’t make them run under their own name either, because they’re afraid they can’t win without them.
So what happens once Cooper and the rest are firmly in charge? Do they turn around and ignore the DSA and all those young voters they’ve been chasing? Or does that become the leverage that lets a DSA minority call the shots for the whole party?
If Cooper and the others don’t have the courage to stand up and say no to the DSA now, when it costs them almost nothing, I have to assume they’ll give the DSA whatever it wants later if that’s what keeps them in power. That’s not a good look….and continues to prove Roy is a Milksop. Tillis, as much as I hated his tendencies to play the spoiler to his own party at times…at least had the courage to do that, even at the cost of his own seat. I do not see that trait in Cooper… nor do I expect it in the future. He has openly indicated they must accept the DSA to win. So he is just as likely to bend over in Congress if it means staying in power or losing his seat. So, I see re-opened borders… a surge in NGOs and their funding….bigger & bigger government and taxes to support it all in our future. The young people are about to get a real lesson in what happens when the government controls everything.
On the local level…..progressive cities and counties like Greensboro and Guilford will be emboldened to tax and spend. So this small victory over local property taxes is likely to reverse regardless of what we vote on as far as limits. If they fear the loss of the ultra progressive/socialists who dominate the local political scene, they will find a way to get the money from those who have worked hard for it, and they will spend it as fast as it comes in on those who have not. From the national, all the way to the city council, fear of losing the DSA, or at least those with DSA leanings, runs deep, and the battle for control is about to begin.
No one is teaching that public ownership of production and distribution economic systems. You will have to show evidence of that BS line of thinking.
Sure, Cooper did say the Democratic Party needs a “wide spectrum” and that he sees no need to sign a pledge specifically repudiating socialist positions. That’s a legitimate thing to criticize or disagree with. But there is a huge difference between saying “socialists are allowed to participate in the Democratic coalition” and saying “I support the DSA’s agenda.” The latter doesn’t follow from the former. Are you suggesting that a party should only have a single voice? I suggest that is an awful idea.
Also note that DSA doesn’t consider itself a part of the Democrat party as they see themselves as a party to themselves. Again, this points to the gapping flaw in your statement.
Next, your Scandinavian example needs some correction. Denmark, Sweden, Norway and the other Nordic countries didn’t try “socialism, discovered it failed, and returned to capitalism.” They have long operated market economies with extensive social programs, high taxes, strong labor organizations and substantial government services. The Nordic countries themselves describe their economic model as a combination of market activity and government intervention. Denmark, for example, currently has a highly productive private-sector economy and a strong business environment alongside its large welfare state. That’s not a failed socialist experiment; it’s a mixed economic model.
Both parties have their extremes. They shouldn’t be excluded as that defeats the idea of democracy. Sadly we have lost the ability to work across the various parties to compromise on a common good. The polarization you seem to be promoting is bad for our country and our future.
Late note on your comment: Notice how much of your argument is actually prediction:
“what happens once Cooper is firmly in charge?”
“does that become leverage?”
“I have to assume…”
“he is just as likely to…”
“I expect…”
“I see reopened borders…”
“bigger and bigger government…”
“Greensboro will be emboldened…”
Those aren’t facts about what Cooper has done or what he has proposed. They’re a chain of assumptions about what might happen from someone who clearly prefers a different party win the election………..
Hope that helps.
Cheers
Well said Mongo jerry. I wish your words could be shared with every person who plans to vote for Cooper. It would certainly give them food for thought.