Latest news with #Tillis
Yahoo
13 hours ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Trump throws his support behind RNC Chair Michael Whatley for NC Senate seat
President Donald Trump has picked the candidate he's supporting to fill North Carolina's open Senate seat in the 2026 election: Michael Whatley. Whatley is a North Carolina native who served as head of the state's Republican Party before Trump selected him in 2024 as chairman of the Republican National Committee. On Thursday night, Trump posted on Truth Social that he wants 'friends in North Carolina' to 'get Michael Whatley to run for the U.S. Senate.' In giving Whatley his 'total endorsement,' he cited his efforts to get him elected in 2024, including wins in swing states, as reason for his support. 'Mike would make an unbelievable Senator from North Carolina,' Trump wrote. 'I need him in Washington.' Whatley is expected to step down as RNC chair to make his first run for office but has not officially done so. McClatchy confirmed Whatley's candidacy, first reported by Politico Thursday morning, with a Republican consultant helping to organize the campaign in North Carolina. Lara Trump, the president's daughter-in-law and Whatley's former RNC co-chair, said Thursday she would not pursue the seat. She is currently registered to vote in Florida and is a Fox News host. 'After much consideration and heartfelt discussions with my family, friends and supporters, I have decided not to pursue the United States Senate seat in North Carolina at this time,' Lara Trump wrote. 'I am deeply grateful for the encouragement and support I have received from people of my home state whom I love so much.' Whatley is expected to face off against retired businessman Andy Nilsson and former JAG officer Don Brown in the Republican primary. Trump, in his Thursday social media post, said he would support Florida State Sen. Joe Gruters as the new chair of the RNC. He is currently treasurer of the RNC and previously served as chair of the Florida Republican Party. NC Senate seat The 2026 Senate election already was expected to be one of the most-watched and most-expensive in the country before Sen. Thom Tillis unexpectedly dropped his bid for reelection in June. Tillis, a Republican from Huntersville, announced his reelection campaign late last year. But last month, Tillis signaled he wouldn't vote for the One Big Beautiful Bill Act over concerns it would harm North Carolina Medicaid recipients. Trump responded on social media to voice his discontent with Tillis' decision, saying it would be a 'big mistake.' He said he would look into supporting another candidate for the North Carolina seat. The next day, Tillis dropped out of the race. Tillis recently told McClatchy that he felt so strongly that the bill would harm North Carolina Medicaid recipients that he needed to take his campaign off the table as a potential bargaining chip. 'I thought it was a good time just to tell the president that he should start looking for a replacement,' Tillis said Wednesday. Tillis said those interviews for a replacement began about 10 minutes later. Former N.C. Gov. Roy Cooper, a Democrat, is expected to announce a run for Senate on Monday. Morgan Jackson, Cooper's adviser, wouldn't confirm media reports about the timing or the specifics of his announcement. In Trump's endorsement of Whatley Thursday, he referenced Cooper, though not by name. He said, without evidence that the 'flood drenched areas' of Western North Carolina were 'abandoned' after Hurricane Helene by President Joe Biden and 'your governor.' Cooper was governor when the remnants of the storm caused massive flooding and $59.6 billion of destruction. He visited the region several times in the aftermath, and a month after the storm, proposed a $3.9 billion Helene relief package for the General Assembly to consider. He pushed to expedite federal aid and also visited Washington to request $25.57 billion in federal funds to support North Carolina's recovery. Who is Michael Whatley? Whatley is a native of Watauga County, in the northwestern part of North Carolina. He has been involved in the political world most of his career. He worked in the Department of Energy during George W. Bush's administration. He became chief of staff for North Carolina Sen. Elizabeth Dole in 2004. From there he became vice president of the Consumer Energy Alliance and a lobbyist. In 2019, Whatley was named chairman of the North Carolina Republican Party, and helped lead Trump to a 2020 victory in the state, despite losing the election to Joe Biden. Whatley is a staunch supporter of the president and has echoed the false narrative that Trump won the 2020 election. Whatley led the state party when it censured Burr, a Republican from Winston-Salem, for voting to impeach Trump for his involvement in the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection.
Axios
20 hours ago
- Business
- Axios
Tillis crashes Trump's Fed tour
Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) joined the Fed tour on Thursday. Why it matters: The question for President Trump is if Tillis will join the battle on who should replace Fed Chair Jerome Powell — and which side he'll be on. On a Senate Banking Committee with a 13-11 partisan split, each Republican will have the ability to vote with Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and deadlock the committee. That's especially true for the retiring Tillis, who bucked Trump on his one "big beautiful bill" and scuttled the nomination of Ed Martin, Trump's first choice to be U.S. attorney for D.C. Driving the news: Tillis was a late tour addition, tagging along with Trump, banking panel Chair Tim Scott (R-S.C.) and other administration officials who have been fiercely critical of Powell. Trump didn't repeat any of his Powell insults as they stood side-by-side in hard hats. "I'd love him to lower interest rates," Trump said. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has been saying that Trump isn't in a hurry to name a replacement for Powell, whose tenure ends in May. An announcement is now expected at the end of the year. The intrigue: Like Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) balking at Mike Waltz's nomination as the U.S. ambassador to the UN this week, Tillis can slow-walk any Fed nominee he doesn't think is qualified. This month, he said that ending the Fed's independence would be a "huge mistake." What we're watching: Tillis is a lame-duck senator, but he hasn't gone full Bulworth. Yet.
Axios
2 days ago
- Politics
- Axios
Senate Democrats buoyed by Cooper's decision to run
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) landed his top 2026 recruit in former North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper, giving Democrats some midsummer hope they can steal a GOP Senate seat next year. Why it matters: Democrats have their candidate. Republicans are still looking for theirs. Both sides will have plenty of money. "It's always the most expensive race in U.S. history. It will be again," Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) said at an Axios Live event on Wednesday. But the outgoing senator has some frank advice for his party after its 2024 gubernatorial candidate, Mark Robinson, ran a disastrous campaign. "Let that embarrassment be a lesson to the base who didn't understand" that Robinson could not win in a general election, Tillis said. Driving the news: Cooper is expected to make a formal announcement Monday, but the news, which Axios scooped Wednesday afternoon, ricocheted across town. For a party that has been rolled on policy all year, Democrats are heading into August hopeful that the politics may be cutting in their direction. The other side: Republicans are still waiting for their top nominee to emerge, with all eyes on the president's daughter-in-law Lara Trump. Tillis declined to say whether he would be willing to campaign with Lara Trump but stressed the importance of choosing a candidate who can appeal to the swing voters or "we're going to have a tough time." The ability to raise money will also be a factor: "You have to have a national fundraising platform that's going to match up against the Democrats, who invariably raise — it's usually about a 60-40 split," Tillis said. What they are saying:"Roy Cooper is about to join a very long list of Democrat governors who tried and failed to be elected to the United States Senate," NRSC spokesperson Joanna Rodriguez told Axios in a statement. "Chuck Schumer might be celebrating, but North Carolinians are still reeling from Roy Cooper's botched response to Hurricane Helene," Alex Latcham, executive director of the Senate Leadership Fund, said in a statement. SLF is expected to spend massive amounts on the race. Go deeper: The 2026 Senate map appears relatively small and will likely include just a handful of truly competitive races.
2 days ago
- Politics
Tillis continues to push Trump administration to release Epstein files
Republican Sen. Thom Tillis continued to buck against Republican House leadership and President Donald Trump Wednesday over the release of the Jeffrey Epstein files. The North Carolina Republican made a defiant call to "release the damn files" while appearing at an Axios event. "The promise to release the files during the campaign was either overplayed and we got a nothing burger if the files get released, or it's something really disturbing and that's actually an even more compelling reason to release it," Tillis said. Tillis predicted that the Epstein files will continue to be an issue "all the way through next year's election" and said that releasing the files would be the best way to get past it. Tillis' Wednesday comments come as the Epstein files saga continues to cause drama on Capitol Hill. On Tuesday, House Speaker Mike Johnson said he would end the legislative session early before Congress' August recess and postponed a committee vote on bipartisan legislation that would call for the release of the Epstein files. The House leaving early won't do anything to ease concerns, Tillis said. "I think the files should be released, let the light of day, let the sun shine through, and that's the best way to get past it," he said. "Otherwise, if anybody thinks that this is going to go away because the House left a day early or something, it's going to be like those zombies in 'The Walking Dead': every time you think you've killed it, another one is just going to come running out of the closet after you," he added. Last week, Tillis had a similar message on the files, saying the administration needs to "just release it and deal with it." "Why don't we just release it and deal with it? If it's embarrassing because it's not substantive, that's fine. If it's embarrassing because somebody's implicated, that's fine. We just need to solve it," Tillis said to reporters at the Captiol last Thursday. Johnson said he would like the files to be released, but did not want to harm the victims. Trump has lashed out against calls for the files, but has ordered the Justice Department to seek approval to release grand jury testimony from the probe. Some Republicans and Democrats, however, said that all pertinent files should come out. Tillis dismissed those who say the files cannot be released due to the vulnerability of victims, and said those concerns could easily be dealt with by redacting names and personal details. "And this nonsense of 'Well, we've got to protect the innocent witnesses,' those sorts of things -- that's called redaction. We do that all the time, that's sort of a fake for -- a bad reason for trying to stop something that you don't want to happen," he said. House Majority Whip Rep. Tom Emmer, however, claimed the Epstein matter is a "non-issue." "It's kind of funny, if it was so important, why weren't Democrats clamoring for this for four years under Biden?," he said during the Axios event.
Gulf Today
6 days ago
- Health
- Gulf Today
To satisfy Trump, GOP delivers blow to health industry
Doctors, hospitals, and health insurers for weeks issued dire warnings to Republican lawmakers that millions of people would lose health coverage and hospitals would close if they cut Medicaid funding to help pay for President Donald Trump's big tax and spending bill. But Republicans ignored those pleas, made even deeper cuts, and sent the legislation on July 3 to the White House, where Trump signed it the next day. The law's passage marked a rare political loss for some of the health industry's biggest players. When unified, doctors, hospitals, and insurers have stood among the most powerful lobbying forces in Washington and have a long track record of blocking or forcing changes to legislation that could hurt them financially. But health industry lobbyists are catching their breath and assessing the damage after Trump's massive bill raced through Congress in less than two months with only Republican votes. Several lobbyists offered various reasons for being unable to stave off big cuts to Medicaid, a $900 billion state-federal health insurance program that covers an estimated 72 million low-income and disabled people nationally and accounts for 19% of all spending on hospital care, about $283 billion a year, according to the latest data. But nearly all agreed that GOP lawmakers were more worried about angering Trump than facing backlash from local hospitals and constituents back home. 'Members were more scared of Trump issuing a primary challenge than disappointing local voters who may find their hospital has to close or their insurance premium may go up,' said Bob Kocher, a partner with venture capital firm Venrock who served in the Obama administration, referring to election primaries leading into the midterms. Consider what happened to Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.). After he took to the Senate floor to announce his opposition to the bill because of its cuts to Medicaid, Trump threatened to support a challenger to run against Tillis next year. Shortly thereafter, Tillis announced his retirement from politics. But other factors were at work. The health industry's warnings to lawmakers may have been dismissed because hospitals, health centers, and other health care provider groups are seen by Republicans as strong backers of the Affordable Care Act, the law known as Obamacare that's considered Democrats' biggest domestic achievement in decades. The ACA expanded government health insurance coverage to millions of people previously not eligible. And no Republicans voted for it. 'Hospitals' support of the ACA has frustrated Republicans, and as a result there is less a reservoir of goodwill to hospitals than in the past,' Kocher said. Ceci Connolly, chief executive of the Alliance of Community Health Plans, said her lobbying team spent extra time on Capitol Hill with lawmakers and their staffers, raising concerns about how the legislation would imperil health care coverage. 'There was almost an overriding sense on the part of Republicans in Congress to deliver a major victory for President Trump,' she said. Her group represents health plans that provide coverage in about 40 states. 'That superseded some of their concerns, reluctance, and hesitation.' Connolly said she repeatedly heard from GOP lawmakers that the focus was on delivering on Trump's campaign promise to extend his 2017 tax cuts. She said the concerns of some moderate members helped lead to one concession: a $50 billion fund to help rural hospitals and other health providers. The money, she said, may have made it easier for some lawmakers to support a bill that, in total, cuts more than $1 trillion from Medicaid over a decade. Another twist: Many new lawmakers were clearly still learning about Medicaid, she said. Republicans also seemed eager to reduce the scope of Medicaid and Affordable Care Act marketplace coverage after enrollment in both programmes soared to record levels during the pandemic and the Biden administration, she said. Trump's law requires states to verify eligibility for Medicaid at least every six months and ends auto-enrollment into marketplace plans — steps health policy experts says will reverse some of those gains. Tribune News Service
