I don’t think I’ve ever heard a United States senator announce that he plans to spend his retirement taking out county party leaders. But that’s exactly what Thom Tillis says he wants to do.
Tillis has been on the media circuit the past few weeks promoting his new book, How to Lose Friends and Antagonize Presidents. I read the book and wrote about it in my Observer column this week, which you can read here free with gift link: If Thom Tillis wanted to save his party, he should have run again
The gist is that if Tillis was serious about saving the Republican Party from itself, the best way to do that would have been to run again. Tillis acknowledges that his words mean less without his name on the ballot, but I guess that’s all moot at this point.
Anyway, the media appearance I found particularly interesting was this interview with Politico’s Jonathan Martin. While chowing down on country ham at a west Charlotte breakfast spot, Martin pressed Tillis on what he meant by offering “help from the outside” to rebuild the GOP.
“For one thing, it’s going through North Carolina and torching every bad leader at the county, district level,” Tillis said, accusing them of targeting moderate Republicans who would better fit their districts. He mocked leaders who “feel like Karl Rove” because 70 people elected them at a county convention.
I did not expect that answer. My first question, naturally, is “Why?” And then my second one is “How?”
Why Tillis wants to do this
The why is easier to answer. Tillis got sideways with the party activists who pushed through his censure at the 2023 state convention. This would be a bit of payback.
For the record, I opposed that censure because disagreeing with your senator is one thing, and formally condemning him for failing a platform purity test is another. President Ronald Reagan is widely credited with saying “The person who agrees with you 80 percent of the time is an 80 percent friend and not a 20 percent enemy,” and it’s a point well-taken.
That said, I do think the Republican Party structure in North Carolina is incredibly weak and that shows up in a short bench in statewide elections. Leaning in to the county party system is the natural place to start, and there are plenty of issues to solve there.
I’ve written a ton on the issue, including a piece on why county GOP groups have so much drama, but I don’t share Tillis’s vitriol toward county leaders. Most are hardworking people trying to do the right thing.
But county parties do often reward a kind of politics that makes building coalitions and winning statewide elections harder. The Republicans who run these organizations don’t necessarily reflect the broader electorate.
Former Gov. Jim Martin’s party-building in the 1980s emphasized developing candidates and governing ideas. Tillis himself recruited candidates and raised money to help Republicans take the House in 2010. Both built influence by helping other Republicans succeed.
I’d be glad to see Tillis put that experience back to work, though “torching” county leaders doesn’t suggest that’s quite what he has in mind.
How he could do it
So let’s get into the how.
People forget politicians quickly, as I write about in The Change Agent. An ex-pol’s opinion is typically about as welcome as a bucket of warm spit, especially among people who didn’t much like him in office.
And Tillis’s record of picking winners is mixed: He helped Sam Page against Sen. Phil Berger, but backing Bill Graham did little to stop Mark Robinson.
To actually replace county leaders, it will take a lot of tedious grassroots work, and I’m not convinced Tillis wants to do it. Finding someone to run for county chair is only the beginning. Somebody has to work the phones and keep after people until they actually show up for the convention.
My suspicion is that Tillis would rather endorse somebody, help them raise a little money, and rip into the other guy. That probably won’t be enough, and is more likely to backfire. If you’re a county chair facing a challenge, having Tillis publicly threaten to take you out is a pretty good way to get your people to the convention.
Again, I like the idea of Tillis putting his connections and experience into party-building. My concern is his attitude. Plenty of good Republicans would welcome help making their county organizations more effective. Fewer will want to enlist in a retired senator’s revenge tour.
If Tillis follows through, I hope he spends more time helping people succeed than explaining why everyone else is an idiot. He’s already written that book.
