Did Sen. Thom Tillis vote for tariffs? A look at the NC Republican’s balancing act
As President Donald Trump announced Wednesday he would lower his new tariffs on products from many countries, Sen. Thom Tillis praised the reversal but said it “doesn’t do much for certainty.”
Tillis’s comments came the day a new political ad accused him of voting for tariffs.
Trump lowered the new tariffs to 10%, with the exception of products from China. He’ll raise the tariff on those goods to 125%, escalating the U.S.-China trade war.
Tillis told reporters moments after Trump’s announcement that Trump’s latest decision probably slows down escalation, “but doesn’t do much for certainty,” and he believes the United States needs to move quickly on “deal flow” for major trading partners.
“Why would any business adviser recommend to a board or to a CEO to deploy capital now, when you don’t know what the long-term cost is going to be and the tax environment?” Tillis said. “I’m glad the president made that choice, but now we’ve got to quickly get a deal flow going.”
Congress wasn’t given the opportunity to approve of the tariffs before Trump’s announcement. And the tariffs have been met with mixed reactions from Republicans.
“Thom Tillis voted for tariffs that hurt everyday Americans,” says former Rep. Wiley Nickel, a Democrat running for Tillis’ seat in the 2026 elections, in a campaign ad he posted Wednesday.
Just hours after Trump announced the new trade policy, Tillis voted not to block tariffs on Canada.
But he’s also questioned whether the tariffs are in the best interest of his constituents and the American people, as he did again Wednesday.
State of the Senate race
Many news outlets marked Wednesday as the official launch to Nickel’s campaign, but he held an official launch event in December 2023, filed paperwork to show he was running with the Federal Election Commission and sends copious campaign emails attacking Tillis.
Tillis, a two-term senator from Huntersville, who once served as North Carolina’s speaker of the House, has launched his reelection campaign. He will face off in the Republican primary against Andy Nilsson, a retired businessman who once ran for lieutenant governor.
Former Gov. Roy Cooper, a Democrat who was term-limited from running again for reelection, is contemplating running against Nickel and Tillis.
The race is expected to be the most expensive in history.
Tillis’ balancing act
Tillis has become known for working across the aisle to get major pieces of legislation passed, from gun reform to codifying into law same-sex and interracial marriages. At times, it puts him at odds with his state party, which censured him.
And now the election of Trump has put Tillis into a precarious position. Trump ran and won on his desire to increase tariffs, while also promising to fix the economy.
When Trump announced the tariffs last week, he dismissed economic reports about how it would affect the economy, saying that after two years it would lead to a manufacturing boom.
On that evening, and likely what Nickel is referring to in the ad, Tillis and the rest of the senators voted on whether to block Trump’s tariffs on Canada. Neither Tillis, nor Sen. Ted Budd, North Carolina’s junior senator, voted in favor of the bill.
But Democrats were able to get it passed in the Senate with the help of Republican Sens. Rand Paul, who co-sponsored the bill, Lisa Murkowski, Mitch McConnell and Susan Collins. The House has not taken up the bill.
After the vote, Nickel put out a news release stating: “Tillis will try to defend his vote with empty words, but he just voted to give Trump the green light to take a sledgehammer to US trade policy. The Trump-Tillis tariffs will cost working families in North Carolina a whole lot more. Folks are already struggling with the high cost of goods. Tillis knows that full well. And yet, he doesn’t care and is willing to lie to their faces about fixing it. He’d rather do whatever Trump tells him to do, even if it hurts North Carolina families.”
Tillis hasn’t made a full-throated indictment of the tariffs, but he has taken steps to show he’s not completely in favor of them.
He is one of seven Republicans who have co-sponsored legislation allowing Congress to review a president’s new trade policies and its potential impact. It might pass the Senate, but likely would not get a floor vote in the House — and Trump has vowed to veto the bill if it passes Congress.
Tillis also publicly demanded Tuesday from U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer to know who he could blame if the tariffs go wrong.
This story was originally published April 9, 2025 at 5:01 PM with the headline "Did Sen. Thom Tillis vote for tariffs? A look at the NC Republican’s balancing act."