Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) promoted Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) to Republican leadership as the North Carolina senator has continued to strike deals with Democrats.
The Washington Post wrote a glowing piece on Tillis’s newfound status as a bipartisan dealmaker. Republicans and Democrats across the Senate praised his ability to strike compromises to pass legislation that would advance President Joe Biden’s priorities.
McConnell added Tillis as a counselor on his leadership team for the remainder of the 118th Congress.
As many more bipartisan senators retired last year, lawmakers are pointing to Thom Tillis as the next generation of dealmaking lawmakers who can keep the place functioning https://t.co/hyW6T1ZuSL
— Liz Goodwin (@lizcgoodwin) January 16, 2023
“North Carolina and the whole country benefit from his service and I’m glad he’s taking on this new leadership role,” McConnell said in a statement to the Post.
McConnell’s promotion of Tillis strikes a stark contrast with Senate conservatives, who have opposed McConnell’s leadership and the Senate GOP’s dealmaking with Democrats.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) speaks to reporters following the Senate weekly policy luncheons, at the U.S. Capitol on December 06, 2022, in Washington, DC. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)
Sen. Mike Braun (R-IN) recounted in an interview with Breitbart News that Democrats have not broken rank to pass conservative legislation in at least 50 years.
He said, “I asked the senator who’s been here in his third term, maybe fourth, to give me one example where it has occurred in recent times. He could not come up with anything, and then we pretty well concluded that hasn’t occurred in the last 50 years.”
Tillis’s promotion has earned accolades from moderate Republicans and Democrats.
“He is an extraordinarily good vote counter,” Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) said of Tillis.
“And my hope is that people like Thom and others will step up to help make the Senate work,” Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT).
“It’s not like I haven’t gone through this thought process in the prior three Congresses. There were just not as many opportunities. There were some,” the North Carolina Republican explained to Punchbowl News. “But nothing compared to this particular Congress.”
Now, Tillis hopes to find common ground with Democrats on a bill aimed at granting amnesty while attempting to increase border security.
Breitbart News’s Neil Munro captured how Tillis has been eager to trade in a “massive amnesty” to Democrats to receive a “stable and orderly inflow of more workers to his business allies.” Tillis also argued during a roundtable that business executives need “affordable” migrant labor.
Sean Moran is a policy reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter @SeanMoran3.
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