Team Thommy tries a little damage control
There was an interesting lil’ conference call last night between the hours of 6PM and 730PM-or-so. Some staffers for senator Thom Tillis – led by his state director Kim Barnes – organized a powwow with 25-or-so NCGOP county and district leaders. The objective? To try and get them correct on just how brilliant their boss TRT truly is.
The word I’m getting is that the call did not go well. The audience was stacked overwhelmingly with people believed to be Thommy fanboys and fangirls. I am told that the only audience member who said nice things about our senior senator was Jonathan Fletcher, chairman of the Gaston County GOP — also state chairman Mike Whatley’s home county.
ThomT was ripped several, um, “new ones” over his outspoken support of gay marriage and amnesty for illegal aliens. (The initial purpose of the call was to address any concerns over Tillis’s work on The Defense of Marriage Act. Apparently, Team Tillis was blindsided by the amnesty talk.) 
I am told the real shock was hearing so many renowned RINOs verbally rip Tillis. These are people who have regularly defended the senator in front of angry voters in their home counties. Many of the RINOs on the call were especially miffed that Tillis and his team did not give them any advance warning or even talking points to help fend off the outrage resulting from his public pro-gay marriage and pro-amnesty stands.
I am told that many participants jumped off the call in disgust, while it was in progress. It started off with 25 audience members and ended with about thirteen.
“If he’s lost these people, he’s lost the party,” said one call participant we spoke with. “He’s in big trouble.”
The fact that the call even happened flies right in the face of the spin pro-Tillis people have been disseminating about their guy not running again. Why would a lame duck care so much about public opinion on the street back home? Burr certainly didn’t. And Tillis has yet – until now – to show that he gave one hoot about what the folks back home think.
We’ve long been aware of just how despised “ol’ weedeater head” truly is around these parts. It looks and sounds like Thom and his boys and girls are just figuring all that out.
Maybe Thom’s ego is so big that he just wants to patch up his reputation on his way out the door to K Street.
I suppose since I have already been public on the GOP Chairs page about censuring, I was not invited. That could have been fun.
CW PC Gop Ch
I wasn’t invited either. Why wouldn’t they invite us? Well I guess because I’m only a Vice-Chairman.
I was not invited either. I would have been shocked if I had been. I expect those that did the inviting might have known that. A salute to those that have awakened.
Browny Douglas
Dare GOP Ch
That surprises me a bit because Dare is one of those up and coming, red counties that statewide gop candidates HAVE to have to win. But I know you by reputation, so yeah, I can see why you weren’t on the call, LOL. Back in the day when I was a county chair, I’d have been (and was) excluded too. Not surprised Gaston was on the call, I still remember that guy calling me up trying to convince me to support his DC lobbyist buddy for state Chair.
Hi Browny, me either. Doesn’t make sense to me.
Tillis doesn’t give a rip what we think. He’s going to spend the rest of his senate term lining up million-dollar lobbying contracts for himself. The NC GOP is finished with him.
Rutherford county just voted to censure Tillis last night, but we did not focus on just the marriage issue. We addressed his pattern of behavior of going against the party platform and betraying the trust we placed (apparently misplaced) in him last election cycle. He is consistently let us down embarrassed and angered us by leading on these issues without apology. It is a shame for our state that we can count on his name to be in the headlines and amongst the few Republican senators who consistently side with democrats on amoral and fiscally irresponsible issues. In fact, we cheer when he doesn’t because it is a surprise.
Thom Tillis, like Richard Burr before him, personifies the corruption of the Washington GOP Establishment. Question is–what have we NC Republicans learned from this experience? How do prevent another Tillis or Burr?
We need to work with Ted Budd to try to keep him from going over to the dark side. Many suspect he voted for McConnell, who is no more a Republican than Benedict Arnold was a patriot. We need to stay in touch with him and try to keep him moored to the platform and principles. Scumbag McConnell will be doing all he can to pull Budd the other way.
Tillis was a lost cause from the beginning. If he runs for anything again, we need to pull out the stops to defeat him in the primary.
If I find out Budd voted for McConnell, he’ll never get my vote again. I voted for Burr the first time around and never again. I’ve never voted for Thommy, and I never will. So, I mean it.
OMG! I just WISH I’d been on that call…. He would have heard it “straight from the horses’ mouth” about his stance on illegal immigration. I know all too well where Thommy TwoFace stands. (In the pockets of the Chamber of Commerce)
Agree with the above about Budd. If it hasn’t yet been done, we should all try to censure Tillis at our county meetings in February.
He does not represent us.
I participated in the Zoom call on Wednesday. It was pretty much as described! A number of Chairs – County & District – strongly expressed their displeasure & angry with Se. Tillis’s vote. A significant numbers of comments were made about – (1) no info to defend his actions; (2) why now after months are we just being “advised”; (3) terrible messaging; (4) total & complete mess of crisis communications management!!
I also advised them that CoD6 had approved a censure & Resolution was being drafted.
This call was billed as “conversation with the Senator” who was a NO SHOW!
David Gleeson
Chairman
Guilford GOP
Everyone needs to understand that Tillis no longer even cares what we think! Still, every county and every district GOP should censure him in the strongest of terms, if no other reason, to send a message.
Truly conservative county parties have options to shake up the status quo, unfortunately most well meaning county party leaders don’t have the imagination nor the will, to resort to extreme measures, but isn’t it obvious that nothing less will do? I’ve advocated before about reflagging as a county party of the NC Constitution Party, or even better, creating a new NC Conservative Party modeled on the one in New York that keeps NY Republicans from drifting too far left. The rigged election of first, Hayes, then Whatley, should have long since awakened all conservatives that this isn’t their party.
Thom Tillis does not care what any constituents think and candidly neither does his staff. His new field person in WNC came from Burr’s staff.
Over 20 counties have censured him and the number grows weekly!
This call was yet another feeble attempt to position him for his gubernatorial run.
“……..gubernatorial run”. That part I believe and here’s why. Yes, TT loves money. He also loves power, and I’ve heard at least one connected source say that’s he’s long-term thinking the Presidency. But I have to believe that his crew isn’t so stupid that they don’t get that he’ll come up short on grassroots support, hence, the “call.” That said, I also know that they have good reason to believe that a tidal wave of money will once again dupe primary voters into giving him what he wants.
Remember, “Traitor Thom” Tillis also sided with the Democrat gun control zealots clamoring for new infringements and GAVE THEM what they wanted. He won his last race in large measure ONLY because North Carolina gun rights voters “held their noses” and voted for him. NEVER AGAIN!
Re: Thom winning his last election due to ‘gun rights voters… Don’t forget: there was “a little issue” of opponent Cal Cunningham’s confirmed sexual text scandal & affair and resulting Army investigation. Thom ‘got lucky’ but still only won by less than 2%!
I suspect the reason Tillis is trying to patch up his (richly deserved) poor reputation is that in lieu of running for another Senate term, he wants to run for governor, particularly given that Mark Robinson makes the RINOs so uncomfortable. Moreover, I’d bet money that Tillis considers a governorship to be a better springboard for a presidential run.
It’s my assumption that Jonathan Fletcher didn’t ask all of the counties that had censured Tillis. Perhaps he (Jonathan) didn’t know which count had? I’ll make certain he is aware that Granville County passed our censure resolution on December 16, 2022.
Senator Tillis not joining the call is another slap in the face. I invite the Senator to come to Granville County for every monthly meeting, and to every event we have. Over the past year, most of the time I get a turn down email. If he had any intestinal fortitude he would come and stand up and answer his critics in our counties. I hope Ted Budd learns a lesson here. Come on Senator, come for a visit. You’re always invited.
In a meeting yesterday, “conservative” Moore County failed to censure Tillis.
Every single person in the room under 60 years of age wanted Tillis censured. Oddly, it was the older people, the people who worked the Reagan Revolution and founders of the TEA party worked to defeat Tillis. I found it ironic that the very people who watched the establishment kill their Reagan Revolution and their TEA party are now aiding and abetting the establishment killing the latest conservative movement. They also argued against holding our elected officials accountable and against consequences for their betrayal of our principles and platform.
Anyway, does anyone have a list of NC county parties which have censured Tillis? If not, can we start listing them here?
There is a typo in the above statement.
The sentence “t was the older people, the people who worked the Reagan Revolution and founders of the TEA party worked to defeat Tillis.”
should have read:
“it was the older people, the people who worked for the Reagan Revolution and who were founders of the TEA party who worked to defeat the motion to censure Tillis.”
OK. I’ll start. Beaufort County did censure Tillis.
The 3rd District has a resolution scheduled for next Saturday’s meeting to do so.