Thom Tillis' second act
Published November 14, 2024
Thom Tillis has always attempted to operate with a malleable image. From the severely conservative state Speaker always on his toes to the caring grandpa contrasted with adulterous Cal, this wily politician has long adjusted his self-presentation to fit his political needs. He’s transforming his persona again–and this time the inconsistency has earned him harsh political repercussions. His worries won’t end with an intra-party censure.
Washington, D.C. seems more and more enamored of Thom Tillis. After all, the silver-haired white male who reaches across the aisle constitutes perhaps the most venerated archetype in Beltway Washington. And Tillis has indeed passed a raft of concrete legislation to address social crises in America. He deserves some degree of credit for this pragmatism, although his history strongly indicates that it stems from a simple desire to be at the center of legislative action rather than any genuine belief in bipartisanship. A career’s worth of cynical maneuvering should encourage skepticism when this Senator changes course.
At any rate, what he clearly hopes is that by building a record of cooperation he can strengthen his political standing among suburban moderates. His efforts are likely to result in disappointment. For the fact is that Tillis has been a major political figure in North Carolina for far longer than his brief run of prominence inside the Beltway. He first catapulted from obscurity in the Tea Party year, working with demonic fervor to engineer a Republican majority in the North Carolina House. Only four years later he rushed into a Senate race and lucked into the seat he sought, and he won reelection–unpopular the entire time. Tillis is not some novel arriviste in the state’s politics.
With so much time for an image to congeal, Tillis’s political reputation has largely been cemented into place. In North Carolina, Tillis is seen by most swing voters as an opportunistic, solidly right-wing pretender who lacks a compassionate touch. His forays into migration reform and gun control might be motivated by a desire for rapprochement with social moderates, but he poisoned the well with those voters quite a while ago. He did this by promising “gut punches” to political opponents; luridly fantasizing about how to persuade disabled women to hate the poor; and by defeating a female senator in a nasty and personal insurgent campaign. The center of the North Carolina electorate has drawn derogatory conclusions about this cold and cynical figure.
Tillis, furthermore, has the unique liability of being a very polarizing figure who is disdained by his own party’s base electorate. Core Republican voters hold Tillis in a suspicion at least as deep as their more moderate compatriots. Hence, his feints toward the policy center have earned him mountains of contempt from the most reliable GOP supporters. While likely making minimal headway toward centrist appeal, Tillis has left his conservative credentials in tatters.
This is ridiculous: Tillis is very right-wing. Consider, for instance, that even as he has become something of a spokesman on gun safety, he still mouths the typical right-wing evasions on “mental health.” Small wonder that a man who dreamed of getting one marginalized group to despise another would scapegoat some of the most unpopular people in society. Tillis ventured into the bipartisan universe because he wanted to become the toast of Carolinian suburbia. But all that will likely be left of him after the right-wingers walk out the door is a pile of press clippings calling him a model of aisle-crossing comity. He’s an accidental idealist.
Washington, D.C. seems more and more enamored of Thom Tillis. After all, the silver-haired white male who reaches across the aisle constitutes perhaps the most venerated archetype in Beltway Washington. And Tillis has indeed passed a raft of concrete legislation to address social crises in America. He deserves some degree of credit for this pragmatism, although his history strongly indicates that it stems from a simple desire to be at the center of legislative action rather than any genuine belief in bipartisanship. A career’s worth of cynical maneuvering should encourage skepticism when this Senator changes course.
At any rate, what he clearly hopes is that by building a record of cooperation he can strengthen his political standing among suburban moderates. His efforts are likely to result in disappointment. For the fact is that Tillis has been a major political figure in North Carolina for far longer than his brief run of prominence inside the Beltway. He first catapulted from obscurity in the Tea Party year, working with demonic fervor to engineer a Republican majority in the North Carolina House. Only four years later he rushed into a Senate race and lucked into the seat he sought, and he won reelection–unpopular the entire time. Tillis is not some novel arriviste in the state’s politics.
With so much time for an image to congeal, Tillis’s political reputation has largely been cemented into place. In North Carolina, Tillis is seen by most swing voters as an opportunistic, solidly right-wing pretender who lacks a compassionate touch. His forays into migration reform and gun control might be motivated by a desire for rapprochement with social moderates, but he poisoned the well with those voters quite a while ago. He did this by promising “gut punches” to political opponents; luridly fantasizing about how to persuade disabled women to hate the poor; and by defeating a female senator in a nasty and personal insurgent campaign. The center of the North Carolina electorate has drawn derogatory conclusions about this cold and cynical figure.
Tillis, furthermore, has the unique liability of being a very polarizing figure who is disdained by his own party’s base electorate. Core Republican voters hold Tillis in a suspicion at least as deep as their more moderate compatriots. Hence, his feints toward the policy center have earned him mountains of contempt from the most reliable GOP supporters. While likely making minimal headway toward centrist appeal, Tillis has left his conservative credentials in tatters.
This is ridiculous: Tillis is very right-wing. Consider, for instance, that even as he has become something of a spokesman on gun safety, he still mouths the typical right-wing evasions on “mental health.” Small wonder that a man who dreamed of getting one marginalized group to despise another would scapegoat some of the most unpopular people in society. Tillis ventured into the bipartisan universe because he wanted to become the toast of Carolinian suburbia. But all that will likely be left of him after the right-wingers walk out the door is a pile of press clippings calling him a model of aisle-crossing comity. He’s an accidental idealist.
Alexander H. Jones is a Policy Analyst with Carolina Forward. He lives in Carrboro. Have feedback? Reach him at alex@carolinaforward.org.
