Democrat former Rep. Wiley Nickel is aiming to unseat GOP Sen. Thom Tillis in 2026, saying the North Carolina Republican is helping President Donald Trump in “tanking our economy.”
A former Democratic congressman is taking aim at President Donald Trump and Republican Sen. Thom Tills as he launches a Senate campaign in the key southeastern battleground state of North Carolina.
“Trump is shredding our Constitution and tanking our economy. Thom Tillis lacks the courage to stand up to him – I’ll be damned if I’m going to sit on the sidelines,” former Rep. Wiley Nickel argued in a social media post as he declared his candidacy for the Senate on Wednesday.
Nickel, an attorney who served as a staffer in former President Barack Obama’s administration before winning election as a state senator and later serving one term in Congress, is the first major Democrat to launch a campaign in the 2026 Senate race in North Carolina.
Democrats haven’t won a Senate election in North Carolina since 2008, but they view Tillis as vulnerable. While Trump carried the state in his 2024 presidential election victory by three points – an improvement over his razor-thin margin in 2020 – Democrats won the statewide races for governor, attorney general and secretary of state.
“North Carolina needs a fighter for what’s right for our state, not a rubber stamp for Trump. That’s who Thom Tillis is,” Nickel charged in a campaign launch video posted to social media.
Nickel edged Republican Bo Hines in 2022 to flip a red congressional district blue. But he declined to seek re-election in 2024 after his district was redrawn to favor the GOP.
In his campaign video, Nickel charged that Republicans “gerrymandered my district, so I couldn’t run again.”
The National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC), which is the campaign arm of the Senate GOP, took aim at Nickel
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“Wiley Nickel is a far-left radical who wants illegal immigrants voting in our elections, drug dealers free on the streets, and parents kept from having a voice in their children’s education,” NRSC spokesperson Joanna Rodriguez said in a statement to Fox News. “He’s so out-of-touch he chose to retire instead of facing voters in a tough election year, and he will be rejected by North Carolina voters in 2026.”
While Nickel is the first major candidate to enter the race, many national and North Carolina Democrats are hoping that former Gov. Roy Cooper, who in January finished his two terms in office, will also run.
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Cooper, who was a popular governor, has yet to decide his next political step.
North Carolina is a top target for the Democrats in 2026, along with Maine, where moderate Republican Sen. Susan Collins is up for re-election in the blue-leaning state.
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Republicans currently hold a 53-47 majority in the Senate, and in next year’s midterm elections they are targeting open Democrat-held seats in Michigan and New Hampshire as well as Georgia, where first-term Sen. Jon Ossoff is viewed as vulnerable.
