According to a source close to the congressman, a first-term Republican and veteran of the military is considering running for the North Carolina Senate seat held by Sen. Thom Tillis. This comes after Tillis declared his intention not to seek re-election, leaving the seat open.
In November 2024, Rep. Pat Harrigan, a Republican from North Carolina, was elected to represent North Carolina’s 10th congressional district. Harrigan served as an Army Special Forces Officer and was deployed to Afghanistan.
It follows Trump’s promise to identify Tillis’s primary opponent in response to the senator’s “no” vote on a critical procedural obstacle to the advancement of the president’s “big, beautiful bill.”
Appointed to succeed Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.), Harrigan will head the House Financial Services Committee.
In what may become a heated Republican primary contest leading up to the 2026 elections, he is one of the first to publicly declare his intention to seek the seat held by Tillis.
In a shocking announcement on Sunday afternoon, Tillis declared he will not be seeking re-election and criticized the present political climate.
“Far too many politicians are in it for the money and don’t care about the constituents they claimed to support during the campaign. According to Tillis, once elected, politicians “don’t bother to do the hard work” to study the policies they want to enact and comprehend how such policies may affect low-income young adults living in trailer parks.
“I haven’t exactly been thrilled about running for another term, as many of my colleagues have noted and even joked about during the previous year. Indeed, it is a matter of choosing between spending another six years entangled in the party deadlock and political theater in Washington or spending that time with Susan, my soulmate, our two daughters, three lovely grandkids, and our extended family back home.
The remarks were made on the second day in a row that senators have been grappling with the “one big, beautiful bill,” a massive document that supports Trump’s policies on taxes, immigration, energy, military, and the national debt.
Tillis voiced his disapproval of the bill’s Medicaid budget cuts, saying they will hurt North Carolina’s rural areas and hospitals.
Late Saturday, the Senate voted 51 to 49 to start debating the bill. Only Tillis and Republican Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky voted “no.”
Numerous individuals have come up wanting to run in the primary against ‘Senator Thom’ Tillis,” Trump wrote on Saturday. In the upcoming weeks, I will be meeting with them in an effort to choose a representative who can do justice to the people of North Carolina and, more significantly, to the Republic of America. I appreciate your careful consideration of this issue.