NC battle brewing? Republican wants Thom Tillis sanctioned for same-sex marriage vote

The growing chasm within the Republican Party was evident Tuesday as the U.S. Senate voted to protect same-sex and interracial marriage — an issue that once unified the GOP but now leaves it increasingly fractured.

Twelve Republicans, including North Carolina Sens. Thom Tillis and Richard Burr, joined Democrats in supporting the Respect for Marriage Act, drawing the ire of many within their party who insisted the bill infringes upon religious liberty.

One North Carolina lawmaker has gone so far as to call for Tillis to be sanctioned by the NCGOP for breaking with the state and national Republican Party’s official platforms, which clearly recognize marriage as between one man and one woman.

“Senator Tillis has taken on an issue that is so fundamental and contrary to the deeply-held beliefs of so many of the Republican Party faithful that it warrants a response,” Rep. Mark Brody wrote this week in The Daily Haymaker, a conservative blog.

Brody also called the GOP divide over marriage equality a foundational issue that is “maybe only second to the fight against slavery.”

Influential conservative groups such as the Heritage Foundation, the Family Research Council and the NC Values Coalition have denounced Republicans for supporting the bill. All eight Republican members of North Carolina’s House delegation voted against a similar bill in the House in July.

Tillis, who helped negotiate a bipartisan agreement on the Respect for Marriage Act, has remained unequivocal in his support for the legislation, calling it a “good compromise that provides permanent certainty for same-sex couples.”

There’s no indication the party’s central committee will actually sanction Tillis, and the NCGOP declined to comment. Brody told the Editorial Board Wednesday that he still thinks Tillis should be sanctioned, noting “it’s the only recourse we have as a party.”

The clash — one-sided as it might be at the moment — highlights the budding questions North Carolina Republicans are facing about their party’s identity. Specifically, who is the North Carolina Republican Party, and who does it want to be? Is it represented by Tillis, a staunch conservative who has also shown a willingness to work across the aisle? Is it represented by people like Brody, who think their beliefs are an excuse to discriminate? Or is it someone like Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson, who takes those beliefs even further with vitriolic rhetoric that embarrasses our state on a regular basis?

It’s a growing question that Republicans have so far managed to avoid answering directly, though their silence is itself telling. This is, after all, the party that unanimously censured senior senator Burr for voting to impeach Trump after an insurrection but looked the other way when Madison Cawthorn spread dangerous and violent rhetoric.

But with Donald Trump determined to return to the White House, Robinson eyeing the governor’s mansion and the MAGA wing of the party more influential than ever, North Carolina Republicans won’t be able to escape the reckoning much longer.

2024 will almost certainly be a test for North Carolina Republicans, who will have to decide whether to support Trump in a state he only narrowly won in 2020. Most of them have, for the most part, remained quiet on Trump since the midterms — Tillis said last week that he considers Trump a “friend,” but said it’s too soon to make any endorsement in the Republican presidential primary.

The GOP will also have to decide whether to break its ongoing silence on Robinson, who, according to recent polling, is favored heavily in the Republican gubernatorial primary but trails in a general election matchup against Attorney General Josh Stein. With Robinson, North Carolina Republicans seem to be repeating the cycle national Republicans had with Trump in 2016 and 2020 — seeing him dominate in polls and therefore fearing what would happen if they criticized abhorrent comments. National Republicans, many of whom are distancing themselves from Trump, finally seem like they may have learned their lesson. In North Carolina, the GOP seems unaware of — or unwilling to realize — the long-term damage Robinson might do to their party.

Tillis, for his part, should be applauded along with Burr for a vote that’s a stand against discrimination — one that most North Carolinians agree on. We hope all Republicans realize that instead of moving their party even further to the right.