On Sunday, Sen. Thom Tillis, a North Carolina Republican, announced that he would not seek re-election.
This came after numerous threats from President Donald Trump because of Tillis' opposition to the so-called "One Big, Beautiful" bill.
Trump had even floated the idea of endorsing a primary challenger against Tillis. But when The Independent caught up with Tillis, he seemed sanguine about the whole affair.
"I respect President Trump, I support the majority of his agenda, but I don't bow to anybody when the people of North Carolina are at risk and this bill puts them at risk," he told The Independent.
Trump's decision to bash a senator from a state he won and Republicans need to keep could be seen as reckless. But it also jeopardized Republicans' chances of holding onto a Senate seat Tillis consistently won by narrow margins.
Tillis simply recognized a political truth: it's nearly impossible to take away an entitlement once it is embedded in federal law and people have benefited from it. Voters tend to punish the party they see as trying to take away a benefit, particularly something as intensely personal as health care.
Trump should have learned this in 2017 after he failed to pass a repeal of the Affordable Care Act, aka Obamacare, when the late Arizona Sen. John McCain delivered his dramatic thumbs down. But Trump's bulldozing style and demand for absolute fealty from Republicans means he might be jeopardizing the future of the Republican majority in the Senate.
Democrats already had Tillis in their crosshairs, but an open seat gives them an even greater opportunity.
A few months ago, Inside Washington listed North Carolina as the Senate seat most likely to flip. That prospect is much more likely with Tillis' departure.
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