Democrats see GOP's Tillis as vulnerable after Hegseth, Gabbard votes
Source: The Hill
02/25/25 6:00 AM ET
Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) is emerging as one of the Democrats’ top targets in the battle for the Senate after voting for all of President Trump’s most controversial nominees. Democrats view Tillis and Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) as the two most vulnerable Republican incumbents of the 2026 cycle as North Carolina is a perennial purple state and Maine hosts the only Republican-held Senate seat that Kamala Harris won last year.
But North Carolina may be shaping up as a more promising pickup opportunity because of Tillis’s votes to confirm Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard and FBI Director Kash Patel. And with limited pickup opportunities on an electoral map that favors Senate Republicans, Democrats are expected to go all in on the North Carolina race, especially if they get their top recruit, former Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper.
“It’s hard to believe that between Pete Hegseth, Kash Patel, [Robert F. Kennedy Jr.] and Tulsi Gabbard that those votes are going to age well,” said Morgan Jackson, a prominent Democratic strategist based in North Carolina. “He votes for them because he has to have Trump’s support in the primary or he can’t win. But by voting for them, it undermines his ability to get elected in the general election.” Collins, by comparison, voted against Hegseth and Patel but voted for Gabbard.
National Republican Senatorial Committee Chair Tim Scott (R-S.C.) told GOP donors at a retreat in Palm Beach, Fla., earlier this month that the North Carolina Senate race would be the most expensive on the map, potentially costing $700 million.
Read more: https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/5161885-senator-tillis-trump-nominees/
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