Sen. Thom Tillis‘s (R-NC) opposition to one of President Donald Trump’s nominees is presenting the latest test of their relationship as Tillis balances his independent streak with an endorsement he might seek in his fight for reelection.
Tillis, known for reaching across the aisle and at times standing at odds with Trump, is the only Republican to publicly oppose Ed Martin, Trump’s nominee for top federal prosecutor for Washington, D.C.
The heartburn over Martin, whose controversies include praising an alleged Nazi sympathizer and referring to himself as “Trump’s lawyer,” extended to GOP senators beyond Tillis. But his willingness to take the blame for blocking one of the president’s nominees threatens to sour his standing in Trumpworld as he runs for a third term in North Carolina.
“Why do others need to actually weigh in if you’ve got a member who’s prepared to express their concerns and manage it that way?” Tillis, who sits on the Senate panel tasked with vetting Martin, told the Washington Examiner on Wednesday.
Tillis has drawn the ire of conservatives in North Carolina for his past votes, with his state party censuring him in 2023 for, among other things, his support for gay marriage rights. More recently, he wavered on whether to support scandal-ridden Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, before ultimately voting for his confirmation.
Now up for reelection with the potential for a competitive primary, Tillis has yet to secure a Trump endorsement that he received in 2020. He suggested it was too early in the 2026 cycle and did not indicate plans to ask for one, even as he conceded it could deter MAGA-aligned primary challengers beyond the two who’ve already filed against him.
“I continue to maintain a good relationship with President Trump, and I think I will continue to,” Tillis said. “I haven’t seen much in the way of any opposition bubbling up. We have some people, I think, who have filed, but we’ll continue to watch that.”
One of those challengers, longtime North Carolina Republican operative and former political candidate Andy Nilsson, considered Tillis’s opposition to a Trump nominee like Martin to be disqualifying for a GOP senator.
“This decision by Tillis feels like a déjà vu moment reminiscent of Tillis’ near-fatal move against Trump’s SecDef choice, Pete Hegseth,” Nilsson said in a statement. “In November 2024, the vast majority of American voters made their wants clearly known, and somehow Tillis is missing that message.”
Tillis framed his decision to break with Trump on Martin as an effort to “watch his back” against a controversial nominee.
Trump, for his part, characterized Tillis’s position as “disappointing” and claimed to be unaware of his opposition, despite the senator apparently speaking with the president and White House officials this week after meeting with Martin.
Martin’s stalled nomination comes at a pivotal moment for the role. He’s serving in an interim capacity that ends May 20. Unless a nominee is confirmed, the 24 judges on the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia could name a replacement, prompting fears among Republicans of a less conservative alternative who might undermine Trump’s agenda in one of the most high-profile U.S. attorney districts.
Tillis’s opposition stems from Martin’s support for Capitol rioters in 2021, some of whom he legally defended. Trump pardoned or commuted the sentences of more than 1,500 defendants, including those convicted of physically assaulting police officers.
“I need somebody who’s in that role who believes that every single person who came into this building illegally should’ve suffered some consequences,” Tillis recently told reporters. He added that if Martin were nominated as a prosecutor for “any district except the district where Jan. 6 happened, the protest happened, I’d probably support him.”
Doug Heye, a former longtime GOP communications staffer in Congress who worked in the George W. Bush administration, said Tillis is helping Republicans in the long run by bolstering his general election chances in a race deemed a “toss-up” by nonpartisan election forecasters.
“Being fully MAGA is always about, ‘Yes, sir, this is the right thing right now,’ and not looking two or three steps ahead. That doesn’t serve Trump well,” said Heye, a native North Carolinian. “Ultimately, this is politically the smartest move that he can do to help Donald Trump. And I’d be very surprised if people in the Trump White House are not keenly aware of that.”
The White House has so far shown no willingness to back down despite skepticism from Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) that Martin’s nomination has a viable path forward. Martin is the “right man for the job and we look forward to his confirmation,” a White House spokesperson said.
Trump expressed disappointment Wednesday over Tillis but said senators should vote their conscience, striking a milder tone than past battles to confirm contentious nominees like Hegseth.
“It’s disappointing because I know Ed. He’s very talented,” Trump told reporters of Tillis’s opposition. “I didn’t know that. But if he, if anybody voted against him, I’d feel very badly about it, only in the sense that in this short period of time that he’s been there, crime is down 25% in Washington, D.C. But that’s really up to the senators. If they feel that way, they have to vote the way they vote. They have to follow their heart, and they have to follow their mind.”
Tillis is far from the only Republican to face conservative scrutiny for expressing concerns or outright opposition to Trump’s second-term nominees. Sens. Mitch McConnell (R-KY), Susan Collins (R-ME), Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), and Bill Cassidy (R-LA) have also faced backlash for some of their stances.
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But Tillis’s handling of Martin stands in contrast to that of Cassidy and Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX), both of whom face messy primaries from MAGA figures in largely safe Republican states. Cassidy voted to confirm Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. despite reservations over his vaccine skepticism, and Cornyn is coming to the aid of Trump in the saga over Martin.
“When [Martin] comes up for a vote, I intend to support him,” Cornyn told reporters. “I tend to defer to the president on his choices.”