[The only reason Tillis won in 2020 was his Democrat opponent Cal Cunningham self destructed when it was revealed he was having an extramarital affair. Until that moment Cunningham was leading Tillis in the polls and favored to win.
Next time out Tillis will be begging for votes from the conservative GOP base that now hates him for his treachery. Demographics (liberals moving from the north, baby boomer conservative deaths, and rising numbers of minorities) will make the state even more purple by 2026 when Tillis faces the voters again.]
https://acu-ratings-pdfs.s3.amazonaws.com/ACU_Ratings_US-2021.pdf#page=44
And, unlike Tillis, he lacked the advantage of incumbency. Meanwhile, Tillis is at 68%, only a hair north of Dick Burr’s 61%.
https://acu-ratings-pdfs.s3.amazonaws.com/ACU_Ratings_US-2021.pdf#page=13
“My impression about Tillis is that he has negative charisma, and his messaging is the opposite of skillful. “
Prior to being elected to the US Senate, Thom Tillis served as speaker of the North Carolina House. Prior to his political career Tillis worked in middle management for a number of corporations, the last being IBM.
Running for Senate he was the candidate of the GOP party establishment in NC. From Wikipedia regarding him gaining the GOP nomination in 2014 - “ On May 6, he won the nomination with 45.68% of the vote over Greg Brannon and Mark Harris, described as a victory for the Republican establishment over the insurgent Tea Party movement.”
Tillis did not enter politics a wealthy man so he is like many Republican establishment politicians a servant of the donor class and beholden to Mitch McConnell who controls party funds for Senate campaigns.