Republicans in North Carolina abandon their own while they rush to defend Trump

Thom Tillis helped turn the Tar Heel state red – but that didn’t protect him from jibes from fellow Republicans

Greensboro, North Carolina hosts the Atlantic Coast Conference college basketball tournament, where the fiercest competitions often exist between schools within the state, none more than the one between the University of North Carolina Tar Heels versus the Duke Blue Devils.

In the same way, some of the sharpest barbs at the North Carolina Republican Party’s convention in the same city were aimed not towards the Democrats, Black Lives Matter, Antifa or whatever boogeymen, but towards other Republicans. Former vice president Mike Pence offered some of his loudest criticisms for former president Donald Trump, on both January 6 as well as not being firm enough in his opposition to abortion. Meanwhile, Mr Trump continued his attacks on his chief rival, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, whom he calls “Ron DeSanctimonious”.

Mr Trump’s indictment did not seem to temper people’s enthusiasm for Mr Trump. Throughout the Koury Convention Center at the Sheraton, I noticed many people with Trump memorabilia and Trump hats. On Saturday evening, the main dining hall added more tables for Mr Trump’s speech than there were when Mr DeSantis spoke on Friday evening. Conversely, Mr Pence’s speech during a luncheon on Saturday took place in a much smaller banquet hall and his remarks mostly elicited polite golf claps.

North Carolina Republicans did mete out punishment to one Republican. But it was not for indictment regarding payments for hush money, another indictment about mishandling documents related to national security, being found liable for a woman’s sexual assault, or inciting a riot at the US Capitol.

Rather, Republicans in the Tar Heel State censured Sen Thom Tillis (R-NC) this weekend for the sin of making too many deals in Washington, The Associated Press reported. The idea that Mr Tillis is a RINO probably surprised nobody more than Mr Tillis. Last year, I profiled Mr Tillis and how he helped turn North Carolina red. As the leader of the GOP in the state House, he helped Republicans win the majority in both chambers in the state legislature for the first time since 1898 and won himself a promotion when he defeated Democratic Sen Kay Hagan in 2014.

At the same time, he’s been a reliable negotiator in Washington. He helped broker a bipartisan deal on gun control last year with Sen John Cornyn (R-TX), Chris Murphy (D-CT) and then Democratic Sen Kyrsten Sinema who has since become an independent (Ms Sinema, who never speaks to the press, told me last year that Mr Tillis was “ a great vote counter. Great whip”).

Since then, he helped broker the Respect for Marriage Act, which codified protections for same-sex couples, and has worked with Ms Sinema to try and find a compromise for immigration reform.

I’ve known Mr Tillis for more than 10 years and I would never characterise him as a moderate. He voted for the Trump tax cuts and confirmed all three of his Supreme Court Justices while opposing both of Mr Trump’s impeachments, which stands in contrast to former Sen Richard Burr (R-NC), who voted to convict Mr Trump for his actions on January 6.

Nevertheless, Mr Tillis emerged as a consensus builder and dealmaker, which North Carolinians expect of their Senators; the state rarely accepts bomb-throwers or those addicted to the limelight but rather prefers doers. Even Jesse Helms, the racist homophobic Republican Senator who occupied Mr Tillis’s Senate seat for 30 years, focused heavily on constituent services and, as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, forged a strong relationship with then-Sen Joe Biden even as he pulled stunts like filibustering the creation of Martin Luther King Jr Day.

But in Donald Trump’s Republican Party, nothing matters more than “owning the libs” and showing fealty to the former president. And the libs cannot be owned if one is compromising with them.

The irony is that Mr Tillis outran Mr Trump in 2020 when they were both on the ballot (though Mr Trump earned more votes, which is to be expected since people often don’t vote downballot). Similarly, Mr Tillis cultivated the field to allow for North Carolina’s rightward shift that enabled Mr Trump to win the state twice and he chastised Democrats for cheering Mr Trump’s indictment.

All of this is immaterial to the Trumpified GOP though. In the eyes of Republicans in the state, Mr Tillis not seeing Democrats as the enemy is grounds for excommunication whereas Mr Trump allegedly being careless with classified documents in a way that could have compromised national security necessitates the entire party rallying around him.

But by doing this, Republicans might be preaching more to their faithful adherents rather than trying to expand their voter base and ultimately wind up sacrificing themselves to preserve Mr Trump.