Republican Sen. Thom Tillis censured by delegates at NC GOP convention

Delegates at the Republican state convention in Greensboro voted Saturday to censure U.S. Sen. Thom Tillis.

The vote to express disapproval of the senior Republican senator from North Carolina took place on Saturday morning ahead of speeches later in the day by former Vice President Mike Pence and former President Donald Trump.

Republicans at Saturday’s convention told The News & Observer that Tillis’ censure was warranted considering his votes were out of line with the GOP’s priorities.

Tillis has emerged in a closely divided Senate as one of a few Republicans willing to negotiate and work with moderate Democrats on major issues including gun safety, immigration and gay marriage.

NCGOP spokesperson Jeff Moore confirmed that convention delegates voted to censure Tillis, and the vote total was later announced to delegates: 799 in favor and 361 against, a more than 2-to-1 margin. Tillis, who previously served as speaker of the North Carolina House before being elected to the U.S. Senate in 2014, won a second six-year term in 2020.

A spokesperson for Tillis, Daniel Keylin, responded to the censure vote Saturday afternoon.

“Senator Tillis keeps his promises and delivers results. He will never apologize for his work passing the largest tax cut in history, introducing legislation to secure the border and end sanctuary cities, delivering desperately-needed funding to strengthen school safety, and protecting the rights of churches to worship freely based on their belief in traditional marriage,” Keylin said.

Some Republicans dissent from decision to censure Tillis

Wayne King, a former vice chairman of the NCGOP and deputy chief of staff to former U.S. Rep. Mark Meadows, called the censure “shameful,” and said Tillis could be “more responsible than any other individual for Republicans’ amazing success in North Carolina over the last 15 years.”

King also said the censure vote doesn’t help the party’s argument that it’s open to independent or moderate voters.

“This sends a terrible message to independents that the NCGOP is no longer a big tent party and doesn’t welcome anyone who doesn’t abide by every word of a party platform that only a few thousand delegates voted on,” King said. “This is a disastrous message to send, and if it continues, North Carolina will become a blue state.”

For state Sen. Jim Burgin, a Harnett County Republican, the party should have kept these issues internal.

Burgin said that he followed former President Ronald Reagan’s philosophy that “we need to handle those things in the party…as a Christian, I believe if we have a problem with somebody, we go to them directly and deal with it. And that’s not the way I would have handled it as a Christian. And so I hope we can come to some resolution and start working together.”

As for Tillis voting out of line with his party, Burgin said, “ I know that he voted up there for certain reasons. I’ve talked to him before. I know that he considers himself a mediator to try to get things done. Sometimes we’ve all voted for things that we didn’t think was the best vote, but we voted for them because it was better than the alternative.”

“I can’t go through and dissect each one of those votes but I’m still of the opinion that we need to be real gracious with each other and try to support the party,” said Burgin.

The vote was first reported by WRAL, which reported that delegates decided to censure Tillis to express their dissatisfaction over his efforts to broker bipartisan deals.

Saturday’s censure of Tillis isn’t the first time the North Carolina GOP has censured a Republican senator.

In February 2021, N.C. Republicans convened an emergency vote to censure then-U.S. Sen. Richard Burr for his decision to cast a “guilty” vote in Trump’s second impeachment trial over the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.

What motivated the censure vote

Alamance County board of commissioners Vice Chair Steve Carter said “the consensus was a lot of people felt like he wasn’t voting in line with the plan, the party’s platform.”

Carter’s main concern was Tillis’ votes on “right-to-life issues.”

“We believe that you’re — you have a viable life from the time of conception,” he said. “That’s what the Bible says.”

Judy Carter, chairwoman of the Alamance Republican Women and Steve Carter’s wife, said the censure lets Tillis know “we didn’t approve” of many of his votes and “we want you to remember who voted for you.”

Felice Pete, president of the Wake County Republican Women, said “the censure vote happened because the people felt like Sen. Tillis no longer took account of our platform.”

“That is the only reason,” Pete said. “He is a good man. He is a fine man. I worked hard for him in the hot sun, with my son in a stroller, knocking doors. So the very least that he could do for the people back in North Carolina is stick to the platform.”

While the censure vote makes a statement, it will not “stop” Tillis from voting out of line with the GOP, Pete added.

“He could’ve been here today to defend himself,” she said. “He chose not to be here. So everybody’s like, ‘He may align with the Democrats.’ He already has. There’s only two parties. Until we have four, there are only two. Make your choice.”