The Senate race is stuck in neutral. Here's how Don Brown is soldiering on

Long-shot candidates built their pitch around opposing Tillis. Now they’re in limbo

I caught up with Senate candidate Don Brown earlier this week from a hotel ballroom in the Triad, en route to a GOP event in Lenoir.

Brown, an attorney and former Navy JAG officer, jumped into North Carolina’s 2026 U.S. Senate race months ago — back when it looked like he’d be challenging U.S. Sen. Thom Tillis. His campaign, like that of fellow early entrant Andy Nilsson, was built around opposition to Tillis and loyalty to Donald Trump.

But with Tillis announcing his retirement and Lara Trump looming as a potential candidate, the race has shifted beneath his feet.

Still, Brown is pressing forward. When I asked him about the Tillis shakeup, here’s what he had to say about his potential competition.

“There’s no real game changer of the names I’ve heard, except possibly Lara Trump,” Brown told me. “They didn’t want to run against Tillis himself. Now they want to wait on Lara Trump. If she says no, then they’ll start jumping in.”

He’s absolutely right. With Lara Trump undecided, the Republican field is effectively frozen. Would-be contenders are holding their breath, and Democrats are doing the same — waiting to see if former Gov. Roy Cooper jumps in on their side.

This isn’t the typical post-retirement free-for-all. Lara Trump’s unique combination of North Carolina roots, national platform, and deep MAGA credibility has put everything on pause. If she enters, she instantly dominates the pro-Trump, anti-establishment lane — the very space Brown and fellow early entrant Andy Nilsson were aiming to occupy.

That hasn’t deterred Brown. He’s continuing to campaign, and to his credit, he’s pushing out policy proposals.

Chief among them: a “Deep State Reduction Act” to dismantle sprawling federal bureaucracies and address the national debt, and the creation of a United States Border Command, a new military branch tasked with securing the border as a matter of national defense.

But without knowing whether Lara Trump will run, it’s hard to say what kind of space — or audience — those ideas will find.

For now, North Carolina’s Senate race remains in a holding pattern. And Don Brown is simply the only one moving.