Election 2026: Singular goal to win elections, different ideas to get there

By Alan Wooten
The Center Square

Sen. Thom Tillis took a stand for North Carolina’s rural communities and hospitals, and some would say at his own political expense.

His stand nearly a year to the day is grounded in a belief of his party prevailing against the headwinds of the November midterms and a party leader in the White House with fading popularity.

“Why are we doing more things that undermine our confidence in elections rather than getting the strong message out that will win for Republicans this year?” the Republican senior senator from the Old North State shot back to a network broadcast question this weekend about the SAVE Act.

Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act, as its formal name is known, is so much of a “No. 1 priority” by second-term Republican President Donald Trump that he shockingly withdrew from signing bipartisan housing affordability legislation last week. Not until, he said, Congress passes the SAVE America Act.

It will be a minute. Senators have left for the July Fourth holiday.

Trump’s latest approval ratings in North Carolina, a state he’s won three times, are less than stellar. And his choice to succeed Tillis is feeling it.

Trump’s disapproval was 54% and approval is 43% in a Catawba College poll from June; in May polls, was 55% disapproval and 43% approval by Carolina Forward and 57.7% disapproval and 39.1% approval by Carolina Journal; and was 55% disapproval and 35% approval in an April poll by Elon University.

Tillis said it’s an “impossible task” to implement the requirements of the SAVE America Act as now proposed before Nov. 3. Instead, he opined, voters need to know about the “rise of democratic socialists of America” and win within existing voting laws.

The proposal requires proof of citizenship when registering to vote and presentation of a photo identification with casting a ballot.

Tillis has cosponsored a version of the bill. As former speaker in North Carolina’s House of Representatives, he was among the earlier workers getting photo ID into law for the state.

Still, a social media post by Trump over the weekend singled him out along with Republican Sens. Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky and Bill Cassidy of Louisiana.

Cassidy, however, is actually a cosponsor and voted for the latest version.

Trump doubled down Monday when the U.S. Supreme Court said votes postmarked on or before Election Day can be counted after Election Day.

Tillis’ stand on the last weekend of June a year ago was on a reconciliation bill. The senator said projected Medicaid costs on the state’s budget would be too much, putting coverage “for hundreds of thousands” at risk. Tillis liked a lot of what was in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, and said as much in support.

But he also had his limit and his reasons. Healthcare coverage was last year, Republicans winning midterms is this year.

“Win by the good results that Republicans have produced and stop undermining the confidence in the elections,” Tillis said. “This is a bedrock of our 250-year history of success as the democracy that changed the world. Let’s not mess with that between now and November.”

Since Jesse Helms’ win in 1972, the seat occupied by Tillis has been in the hands of the Republican Party all but one term – Kay Hagan’s from 2009-15. The other seat, occupied by Republican Sen. Ted Budd, has also been with the party all but six years – a midterm win by John Edwards in 1998 – since Lauch Faircloth won in 1992.

In the race to succeed Tillis in November, Democrat Roy Cooper is consistently polling ahead of Republican Michael Whatley – directly linked to Trump as former chairman picked by him to lead the Republican National Committee – including by as much as 14% in a Catawba poll released this month. Should Cooper pull off the win, he’d be the first Democrat in the state to win a midterm for U.S. Senate since Edwards 28 years ago, and he’d end Republicans’ winning streak of five consecutive elections to the chamber.