By Alliance President Terry Gips
See main article Book Review: How to Lose Friends and Antagonize Presidents
Positive Positions (especially compared to his party)
- Support for the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, which provided funding to states for red flag laws
- Backed the Respect for Marriage Act, which repealed the Defense of Marriage Act
- Support for a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants
- Initially opposed President Donald Trump‘s national emergency declaration to divert funding to a border wall
- Voted against Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act
- After the release of the Access Hollywood tape during the 2016 United States presidential election, Tillis called Trump’s comments “indefensible”
- According to Politico, he “began the Trump era by negotiating with Democrats on immigration and co-authoring legislation to protect special counsel Robert Mueller”
- In 2007, Tillis voted in favor of a measure to give NC a renewable portfolio standard so that by 2020, the state was second in solar energy production
- In 2019, Tillis was one of 20 senators to sign a letter asking the EPA to regulate the amount of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances in drinking water
- In February 2025, Tillis called Russian President Vladimir Putin a war criminal and the “greatest threat of democracy in my lifetime,” and called Putin a “liar, murderer, a man responsible for ordering the systematic torture, kidnapping and rape of innocent civilians”
- In 2022, Tillis helped pass the Respect for Marriage Act, which repealed the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) and codified rights to same-sex and interracial marriage into federal law
- In 2021, Tillis voted against creating an independent commission to investigate the 2021 US Capitol attack, saying “many involved needed to be held accountable and go to prison”
Problematic Positions:
- He has voted with Trump’s stated positions 90% of the time as of January 2021
- In 2016, while Biden was President, he opposed filling Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s vacancy until after the election 7 months later
- However, in September 2020, with less than two months to the next presidential election, Tillis supported an immediate vote on President Trump’s nominee
- Animal protection groups have criticized Tillis for cosponsoring the Ending Agricultural Trade Suppression (EATS) Act, which would limit the ability of states to regulate the sale of meat from animals raised on farms that do not meet animal welfare standards
- In 2014, Tillis opposed increasing the federal minimum wage, and declined to comment on increasing North Carolina’s minimum wage from $7.25 an hour after opposing the idea in 2010
- He suggested the government should not set a minimum wage at all, calling it an “artificial threshold” that “drives up costs” and could reduce jobs.
- He has opposed regulations, such as In 2015 when he said coffee shop companies should be able to “opt out” of hand-washing regulations “as long as they post a sign that says, ‘We don’t require our employees to wash their hands after leaving the restroom’” because tThe market will take care of that.”
- During his first speech on the Senate floor, in 2015, Tillis called for opening up the US Atlantic coast for offshore drilling
- He opposed Biden’s Clean Power Plan and supported Trump’s rollback of it
- In 2017, he called on Trump to withdraw the US from the Paris Climate Accord
- In 2014, Tillis denied that climate change was occurring and in 2015 voted against an amendment acknowledging its existence and the contribution of human activity
- In 2018, Tillis said he believed climate change is happening and that humans may contribute to it, but remained unclear about whether he agrees with the scientific consensus on climate change that it is human-caused
- Tillis holds a 9% lifetime score from the League of Conservation Voters
- Tillis opposes the Affordable Care Act and has repeatedly voted to repeal it
- In 2012, Tillis played a leading role in pushing for a state constitutional amendment that banned same-sex marriage and civil unions