Ground Control to Major Thom …
Country music’s John Rich got the ball rolling with songs mocking our senior US senator. Now, it seems that MAGA influencer – and meme and video genius — Brenden Dilley has joined the competition. (If you’re on Twitter / X, you can enjoy his meme work here and in other places where it is shared.)
Mr. Dilley’s latest meme is a video parodying the late great David Bowie‘s classic rock masterpiece ‘Space Oddity.’
Today, we are honored to bring you the latest Dilley production, “Ground Control to Major Thom”:
It’s nice that all of you national MAGA types are finally recognizing the hell we live with every day in North Carolina.
It’s good to talk trash about primarying Tillis. But the guy IS masterful at shaking down money from wealthy special interests. His allies in Raleigh got the law changed so all he needs to survive a primary is 30 percent of the vote. I assure you, there are enough selfish and uninformed GOP primary voters out there to get this man to the thirty percent benchmark.
If we seriously want to knock Thom off, we need someone capable of garnering 30+ percent of the GOP primary vote. Right now, the best primary alternatives to Tillis are Don Brown and Andy Nilsson. Both are what you’d describe as unknowns. Brown has some street cred with in-state MAGA folks. (Nilsson does not.)
I’ve talked to Nilsson once. No contact at all with Brown. Unless something better comes along, we need to settle with one of those guys and equip them with enough resources to battle Thom and his minions. Right now, neither Nilsson nor Brown are anywhere close to being capable of snagging 30 percent.
Another problem we have is that Tillis allies have made their way into the Trump inner circle in DC. 
The president is getting some very bad advice on North Carolina from some people who are in love with Tillis and contemptuous of all things MAGA. Trump has already blessed their takeover of the state GOP organization. There’s also a Tillis ally heading the RNC. (Neither the NCGOP nor the RNC had diddly-squat to do with Trump’s three wins in North Carolina. It was all hard work on-the-ground by the MAGA troops.)
The president really needs to widen his search for decent intel on all things political in the Tar Heel State.
We had a decent shot at getting Tillis in 2020 — a respectable primary candidate who could likely self-fund against Tillis. Then, along comes Donald Trump with a full-throated endorsement of Tillis. And the rest is history. (Please, please, please. NO 2026 endorsement of Tillis AT ALL.)
SO — to recap – the parodies and memes are fun. But IF you really want to send TRT back to us for good, put some skin in the game. We need help.
There are surprising numbers of people pledging to sit out the US Senate race in November if Tillis is the GOP choice.
Thom barely escaped the Democrats in 2014 and 2020. With former governor Roy Cooper as their candidate in November 2026, they’ll likely get him this go-’round.
Lara Trump!
To me Nilsson still has a big question mark next to him!!! How on earth could our party already disgusted with a mealy mouthed anti trumper, Tillis, only to fall for Nilsson who tried to organize a anti-Trump Republican Party Convention with of all people Bob “RINO” Orr. When did this transformation to a MAGA supporter occur? It sure wasn’t during the re-election of the first term. Did the conversion happen because he wants to run for national politics?? Flip Flop for convenience? I haven’t researched Mr. Brown, so no opinion there, but my research shows Nilsson as a no go because of his past heavy anti-Trump positions..
Neither of the 2 named above, unfortunately have name recognition NOR the warchest $$ to thwart Tillis. Establishment will dump $millions to prop Tillis and destroy the other 2.
DESPERATELY need a state-wide KNOWN candidate, with history and experience.
IF Tillis survives primary, coop gonna mop him up. Bloomburg, et als going to dump more $millions in (just like they did for Stein, Griffin). coop gonna walk in (if he wants seat).
Last fall was a severe defeat for party. Totally lost COS seats/majority. Gov/Lt Gov/AG
Tillis’ tie to Trump is Michael Whatley. Whatley was recruited to run for NCGOP chairman by Tillis and has been Tillis’ guy in Raleigh. Whatley pulled the wool over Trump’s eyes with overstated he record in NC and conned his way into the RNC chairmanship where he can pass bad into on to Trump. His latest was getting Trump to endorse our sadsack NCGOP chairman Jason Simmons, who blew some key campaigns in 2024.
Activists can see through Trump’s bad endorsements made on bad advice. A good example was the Trump endorsement of Tillis in 2020, when the crowd at the Trump rally loudly booed Trump’s announcement of that endorsement. For 2026, Trump has already endorsed Lindsay Graham in South Carolina, an Undocumented Democrat and amnesty whore if there ever was one.