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(WASHINGTON) — Republican Sen. Thom Tillis’ decision not to seek reelection is jolting what was already expected to be a fierce battle in North Carolina to either challenge him or flip his seat, which will now be wide open in 2026.

Without Tillis on the ballot, Republicans have been floating their ideal candidate to hold onto their slim majority in the Senate, many of whom are less critical of President Donald Trump than Tillis, including allies Michael Whatley, chairman of the GOP, and the president’s daughter-in-law, Lara Trump.

A Republican National Committee official waved ABC News off the notion that Whatley, who used to lead the North Carolina GOP, was leaving his post, saying that Whatley currently has no plans to look at another office for the time being.

“Chairman Whatley is focused on serving the president and working with his team to protect and expand our Republican majorities in the midterms,” the official, who was granted anonymity to discuss deliberations, said.

Lara Trump, who also faces mounting external pressure to run in her native North Carolina, told Fox News Radio on Monday that she would certainly consider the possibility.

“North Carolina is my home state. It’s where I was born and raised. It made me the person I am today…if it works out and the timing works, and it works out for my family, it is absolutely something that I would consider doing,” she explained.

President Trump told reporters on Tuesday that he’d be excited for his daughter-in-law to run: “Somebody that would really be great is Lara. She grew up there … Lara Trump, I mean, that would always be my first choice.”

But he added later that he hasn’t talked to her directly about the potential bid, and that other Republicans could be successful, too.

“I don’t know who the candidates are going to be. I think you can have one of the congressmen step up,” he said.

Lara Trump, who ruled out a Senate run in Florida earlier in the year, would likely be the frontrunner if she entered. Other potential contenders, like Rep. Pat Harrigan said Tuesday in a post on X that he would back Lara Trump if she chose to run.

“There’s lots of excitement around the 2026 Senate race, but let me be crystal clear about something: if @LaraLeaTrump enters this race, I’ll be the first to endorse her and the first to fight for her victory,” Harrigan wrote.

In addition to Trump, other North Carolina Republicans who could be considering Senate bids including Reps. Greg Murphy and Addison McDowell, sources familiar with the situation told ABC News. North Carolina Rep. Richard Hudson, who chairs the campaign arm of House Republicans, said on Tuesday he would not run.

Regardless of the candidate, the North Carolina GOP said in a statement it feels confident that another Republican will take Tillis’ place.

“Senator Tillis has announced his decision to not seek re-election to the U.S. Senate and we wish him well in his retirement from public service. As we move forward into the midterm elections, we will hold this seat for Republicans in 2026 and continue to deliver on President Trump’s America First priorities,” North Carolina GOP Chairman Jason Simmons said.

Democrats disagree and find Tillis’ retirement an opportunity to make up for ground the lost in 2024. Former U.S. Rep. Wiley Nickel has already announced a run, and wrote on X on Sunday, “Thom Tillis is out. No matter which MAGA loyalist Trump picks, I’m the only Democrat in this race and I’m ready to win.”

Yet the candidate atop North Carolina Democrats’ wish list is their former governor, Roy Cooper. A spokesperson for Cooper told ABC News he’s strongly considering a run and will announce his decision “in the coming weeks.

Anderson Clayton, the chair of the North Carolina Democratic Party, told ABC News in an interview Monday that as she has been “going around the state and going around all my different counties, what I’ve heard the most from folks is that they would love to see Governor Cooper get in this race.”

But Clayton, even as she praised Cooper’s strong approval ratings and the desire among many for him to run, pointed to a “bench” of others she said were strong candidates, including Nickel and Lt. Gov. Rachel Hunt. A spokesperson for Hunt’s lieutenant governor campaign told ABC News that Hunt believes Cooper will run but that “if the field shifts, she’ll give it thoughtful consideration.”

Clayton said she believes Democrats will handily flip the seat no matter who is on the ticket.

“I think that the Republican Party is running away from Thom Tillis, which is what we saw from the announcement [Sunday] … We immediately saw the president deciding that he was going to find a primary challenger for Tillis. And I think it shows that North Carolina Democrats are in a prime position to be able to take this seat, especially now that it’s an open seat,” she said.

She said the party had also seen an influx in donations and volunteers since Tillis announced his retirement.

Cooper would be “a real powerhouse” if he decided to enter the race, Davidson College political science professor Susan Roberts told ABC News. She contrasted Cooper with the progressive New York Assembly member Zohran Mamdani, the presumptive Democratic primary nominee for mayor of New York City.

“[Cooper] may not be the shiniest object [or] have the campaign that helped Mamdani in the New York mayor’s primary, he may not have that shiny social media presence, but I think he has the gravitas to be a good candidate, and I think he would know how to govern,” Roberts said.

Mac McCorkle, a professor at Duke University’s Sanford School of Public Policy, said Lara Trump’s powerful name recognition could clear the Republican primary field.

“The other Republicans who were thinking about it are kind of no-names,” McCorkle said. “I think it’s Lara Trump’s to refuse.”

He said while less-known candidates might need to take positions heavily to the right to win over “the MAGA base” in the primary, Lara Trump’s connection to President Trump could help her gain support without having to do so, making her more appealing to moderate voters later on in the general election.

On the other hand, Jason Roberts, a political science professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, saw Lara Trump’s family connection to the president as a potential disadvantage.

“Midterm elections typically don’t go well for the president’s party, because the out-party is fired up. The in-party typically doesn’t have as high a turnout,” Roberts said. “What successful presidential party candidates do in a midterm is they try to distinguish themselves from that president. And if you’re running a candidate whose last name is Trump, that’s going to be really, really difficult to do.”

ABC News’ Hannah Demissie and Benjamin Siegel contributed to this report.

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(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump continued on Tuesday to float his idea, which some legal experts say is unconstitutional, to deport U.S. citizens who commit crimes.

Speaking to the press during a tour of a migrant detention center in the Florida Everglades, the president repeated claims that there are many immigrants who are now citizens and have been committing serious crimes.

“They’re not new to our country. They’re old to our country. Many of them were born in our country. I think we ought to get them the hell out of here, too, if you want to know the truth,” he said. “So maybe that will be the next job.”

The proposal came weeks after the Assistant Attorney General Brett Shumate — a Trump appointee — released a memo giving U.S. attorneys wide discretion to decide when to pursue the denaturalization process to “advance the Administration’s policy objectives.”

Some of the cases U.S. attorneys should pursue are those against individuals who have engaged in torture, war crimes, human trafficking and human rights violations, the memo says.

Legal experts have warned that Trump’s proposals are unconstitutional claiming they violate the Eighth Amendment, which prohibits cruel and unusual punishment. The issue has not come before the courts yet.

Amanda Frost, a professor at the University of Virginia School of Law, told ABC News in April that the administration could try to target naturalized U.S. citizens, who can lose their immigration status if they’ve committed treason or falsified information during their naturalization process. However, she said those instances are rare.

“If someone’s a naturalized citizen, there could be an effort to denaturalize that person and deport them,” Frost said. “But then it would have to be that they committed some sort of fraud or error in their naturalization process. An unrelated crime could not be the basis for denaturalizing and deporting somebody.”

Trump acknowledged that he didn’t know if deporting U.S. citizens who are convicted of crimes is legal.

“We’ll have to find that out legally. I’m just saying if we had the legal right to do it, I would do it in a heartbeat,” he added. “I don’t know if we do or not, we’re looking at that right now.”

ABC News’ Alexandra Hutzler contributed to this report.

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(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump threatened New York state lawmaker Zohran Mamdani with arrest if the presumptive Democratic nominee for New York City mayor defies Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations.

The president also continued to allege the 33-year-old Democratic socialist is a “communist” while talking to reporters Tuesday at the new so-called “Alligator Alcatraz” migrant detention center in Florida’s Everglades.

When asked by a reporter what his message is to Mamdani — after he said in a victory speech following the New York City Democratic mayoral primary that he would “stop masked ICE agents from deporting our neighbors” — Trump responded, “Well then, we’ll have to arrest him.”

“Look, we don’t need a communist in this country, but if we have one, I’m going to be watching over him very carefully on behalf of the nation,” Trump continued.

Trump also referenced false claims that Mamdani is in the country illegally.

“A lot of people are saying he’s here illegally,” Trump said. “We’re going to look at everything. Ideally, he’s going to turn out to be much less than a communist. But right now he’s a communist. That’s not a socialist.”

Born in Uganda, Mamdani has lived in the United States since he was 7 years old and became a naturalized citizen in 2018.

As he departed the White House earlier Tuesday, Trump continued his attack on Mamdani in the wake of the primary, calling him a “total nut job” and “bad news” and reiterating his false claim the politician is a communist.

“I think I’m gonna have a lot of fun with him, watching him, because he has to come right through this building to get his money,” Trump said after threatening to withhold funding from New York if Mamdani doesn’t “do the right thing.”

Mamdani responded to Trump in a statement on Tuesday, calling his remarks “intimidation.”

“His statements don’t just represent an attack on our democracy but an attempt to send a message to every New Yorker who refuses to hide in the shadows: if you speak up, they will come for you. We will not accept this intimidation,” Mamdani said.

When asked about comments from Trump on social media calling him a “Communist Lunatic” in an interview with ABC News last week, Mamdani shrugged off the epithet, saying he’d encourage Trump to learn about his policies, and that he’d work with Trump on affordability but would resist the president’s deportation plans.

“The next mayor of New York City will have to work with the Trump administration. Are you willing to do that? Will you do that?” ABC News Senior Political Correspondent Rachel Scott asked.

“I will work with the Trump administration when it is to the benefit of New Yorkers,” Mamdani said. “My approach will never be reflexive, whether in agreement or opposition, but if it comes at the expense of the New Yorkers that I’m running to serve, then, no, I will not be working with the administration on harming the people that I look to represent.”

Mamdani also responded to Trump’s attacks during an interview on NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday. Asked how he responds to being called a communist, Mamdani said, “I am not.”

“I have already had to start to get used to the fact that the president will talk about how I look, how I sound, where I’m from, who I am. Ultimately because he wants to distract from what I’m fighting for,” Mamdani said. “And I’m fighting for the very working people that he ran a campaign to empower that he has since then betrayed.”

The New York City Board of Elections released the results of the ranked-choice voting tabulation on Tuesday, one week after initial results that only reflected voters’ first choice candidates showed Mamdani with around 44% of the vote and Cuomo with around 36%.

Mamdani now leads former Gov. Andrew Cuomo by 12 points, 56% to 44%, in the Democratic primary, according to the updated results.

These may not be the final margins, as cured ballots come in before the Board of Elections certifies the election on July 15, though subsequent updates are not expected to change who is on top. Current Mayor Eric Adams will run as an independent, while Cuomo will also run as an independent on the “Fight and Deliver” ballot line, a source close to the campaign confirmed to ABC News. Curtis Sliwa, who also ran for mayor against Adams four years ago, will be the Republican candidate.

The New York City mayoral election is scheduled to occur on Nov. 4.

ABC News’ Oren Oppenheim, Brittany Shepherd and Lalee Ibssa contributed to this report.

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(WASHINGTON) — Gathered on the Senate floor after a 26-hour, record-breaking vote-a-rama series, senators voted hastily on two final Republican-led amendments before getting to the main event: final passage of President Donald Trump’s “big, beautiful bill.”

Vice President JD Vance was presiding over the chamber after breaking a tie on a previously considered wraparound amendment to the bill. It was assumed that he would soon break another tie on the bill’s final passage, with a number of Republican holdouts remaining to make the vote math still uncertain.

It was just a matter of who would be the third “no” vote Republicans could afford to lose and still pass the bill. Sens. Thom Tillis and Rand Paul had already committed to voting it down.

Sen. Lisa Murkowski was widely thought to be the last opponent, with a temporary SNAP carveout for her state of Alaska hanging in the balance down until the last minute.

When the final vote started, Murkowski was seated in the second row near the middle of the chamber. Next to her was Mississippi GOP Sen. Roger Wicker and next to him was another moderate Republican Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, who eventually proved to be the third and final GOP “no” vote.

Collins, dressed in a hot-pink pantsuit, votes near the top of the alphabet. But she left near the beginning of the vote’s final passage to go to the cloakroom. She missed her chance to vote when her name was called, coming out shortly after and walking directly to Murkowski. Collins put her arm around Murkowski, and then went up to the clerk and put her thumb down: no. She then left the chamber.

Focus was then squarely on Murkowski, whose vote could have tanked the entire bill. But former Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell came up to sit next to her. The two talked quietly and then shook hands. When her name was called, Murkowski quietly said “Aye.”

Senators had added additional sweeteners for her state, including a provision aimed at insulating Alaska from some of the bill’s harshest impacts on SNAP.

She then started to leave the chamber, shaking hands with GOP Sens. Jerry Moran of Kansas and Bill Cassidy of Louisiana before exiting.

Afterward, Murkowski told ABC News’ she “struggled mightily with the [bill’s] impact on the most vulnerable in this country.”

“I needed help, and I worked to get that every single day. And did I get everything that I wanted? Absolutely not,” she added.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune didn’t speak to either woman after their votes. He was seated in his chair in the front of the chamber.

Collins later explained her vote in a statement: “My vote against this bill stems primarily from the harmful impact it will have on Medicaid, affecting low-income families and rural health care providers like our hospitals and nursing homes.”

She also said she had problems with cuts to energy tax credits and that the rural hospital relief fund that was created to try to get Republican holdouts to vote for the bill was insufficient.

ABC News’ John Parkinson and Lauren Peller contributed to this report.

Copyright © 2025, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(WASHINGTON) — Gathered on the Senate floor after a 26-hour, record-breaking vote-a-rama series, senators voted hastily on two final Republican-led amendments before getting to the main event: final passage of President Donald Trump’s “big, beautiful bill.”

Vice President JD Vance was presiding over the chamber after breaking a tie on a previously considered wraparound amendment to the bill. It was assumed that he would soon break another tie on the bill’s final passage, with a number of Republican holdouts remaining to make the vote math still uncertain.

It was just a matter of who would be the third “no” vote Republicans could afford to lose and still pass the bill. Sens. Thom Tillis and Rand Paul had already committed to voting it down.

Sen. Lisa Murkowski was widely thought to be the last opponent, with a temporary SNAP carveout for her state of Alaska hanging in the balance down until the last minute.

When the final vote started, Murkowski was seated in the second row near the middle of the chamber. Next to her was Mississippi GOP Sen. Roger Wicker and next to him was another moderate Republican Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, who eventually proved to be the third and final GOP “no” vote.

Collins, dressed in a hot-pink pantsuit, votes near the top of the alphabet. But she left near the beginning of the vote’s final passage to go to the cloakroom. She missed her chance to vote when her name was called, coming out shortly after and walking directly to Murkowski. Collins put her arm around Murkowski, and then went up to the clerk and put her thumb down: no. She then left the chamber.

Focus was then squarely on Murkowski, whose vote could have tanked the entire bill. But former Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell came up to sit next to her. The two talked quietly and then shook hands. When her name was called, Murkowski quietly said “Aye.”

Senators had added additional sweeteners for her state, including a provision aimed at insulating Alaska from some of the bill’s harshest impacts on SNAP.

She then started to leave the chamber, shaking hands with GOP Sens. Jerry Moran of Kansas and Bill Cassidy of Louisiana before exiting.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune didn’t speak to either woman after their votes. He was seated in his chair in the front of the chamber.

Collins later explained her vote in a statement: “My vote against this bill stems primarily from the harmful impact it will have on Medicaid, affecting low-income families and rural health care providers like our hospitals and nursing homes.”

She also said she had problems with cuts to energy tax credits and that the rural hospital relief fund that was created to try to get Republican holdouts to vote for the bill was insufficient.

Copyright © 2025, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump’s tax cut and spending bill came down to the wire as Senate Republican leaders scrambled to get all GOP members on board before the final vote Tuesday.

In the end, three long-serving GOP members, Susan Collins of Maine, Rand Paul of Kentucky and Thom Tillis of North Carolina voted against, forcing Vice President JD Vance to break a 50-50 tie.

Each of the three has explained their reasons for bucking the president.

Susan Collins

One of the mostly closely watched as the vote neared was Collins, who had been on the fence due to the bill’s proposed Medicaid cuts.

“Approximately 400,000 Mainers – nearly a third of the state’s population – depend on this program,” she said in a statement after voting no. “A dramatic reduction in future Medicaid funding, an estimated $5.9 billion in Maine over the next 10 years, could threaten not only Mainers’ access to health care, but also the very existence of several of our state’s rural hospitals.”

Collins added that the bill had “additional problems.”

“The tax credits that energy entrepreneurs have relied on should have been gradually phased out so as not to waste the work that has already been put into these innovative new projects and prevent them from being completed,” she said.

Thom Tillis

Tillis has been extremely vocal in his opposition sine the weekend, drawing attention for a passionate floor speech citing Medicaid provisions he claimed would hurt his North Carolina constituents.

During a closed-door GOP conference meeting two weeks ago, Tillis is reported to have made the point that Medicaid coverage for more than 600,000 North Carolinians would be at risk under the Senate’s proposal and asked his colleagues to consider how the policy would affect their own states — even providing state-specific data on a handout.

“I just encouraged other members to go to their states and just measure how … take a look at the proposed cuts and tell me whether or not you can absorb it in the normal course of business, and in many cases, you’re gonna find that you can’t,” Tillis told reporters at the Capitol last week.

Trump lashed out against Tillis on his social media platform and to the press and threatened to field primary challengers. Tillis announced on Saturday that he would not seek reelection.

Rand Paul

Paul, a staunch advocate for keeping spending and the debt ceiling in check, posted on X that he wanted the bill to include a 90% reduction in the ceiling.

“No earmarks. No handouts. Just real fiscal reform. I wasn’t looking for favors. I wasn’t horse-trading. I was fighting for the American people and against our out-of-control debt,” he said.

“Bottom line: I offered my vote for fiscal sanity. Congress chose to sell out taxpayers instead. Only once the bill is released, we will know what the true price was,” Paul added.

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