Thom Tillis’ Advice for Robert Reives

The North Carolina House of Representatives last changed management in 2011, after an election that gave Republicans full control of the General Assembly for the first time since Reconstruction. The new House speaker: Thom Tillis, then a Mecklenburg County lawmaker who in two terms had never moved off the back row.

Tillis would serve two terms as speaker before being elected to the U.S. Senate in 2014. Now he’s leaving Washington, D.C. after declining to seek re-election following a dispute with President Donald Trump. 

Asked Wednesday what advice he would give to Democratic Rep. Robert Reives, the presumptive next House speaker, Tillis told The Assembly that he should be fair to members of the losing party as well as his own.

“I’d show respect and be magnanimous in victory,” Tillis said. “You’d be amazed at how much more power you gain when you vest people with power as opposed to keeping it all in the corner office.” 

Tillis said that, as speaker, he tried to streamline committees and give members more of a voice in the legislative process. He did so to appease Republicans who felt sidelined under Democratic control. “What I told everybody is, ‘I’ve heard you all bitchin’ about these rules ever since I got here,” he said.

He said he also tried to respect Democrats, who weren’t used to being in the minority. For example, he gave outgoing Democratic Speaker Joe Hackney a nice office carved out of a former meeting room. 

“He had an open-door policy,” recalled Republican former Rep. Nelson Dollar, who represented Wake County at the time. “He did a good job of trying to accommodate the committee assignments that minority members were interested in.”

Dollar said Tillis also tried to keep the GOP caucus united. For example, he pushed to revise House rules and made state Rep. Paul Stam, a one-time rival for speaker, the GOP majority leader. 

“The majority got the rules they wanted, but there was input from the minority,” Dollar said. “Reaching out to the minority party [made] that transition a little easier.”

Tillis said that if Reives, who has been the minority leader since 2020, treats members with respect, “you’re gonna do right by the legislature and the people of North Carolina. And if you don’t, you’re going to tee [Republicans] up for gains in the next election. That’s just the way it works.”

Tillis said he wishes Reives well: “I want every speaker to succeed because that makes North Carolina succeed.”

Charles Jeter, a Republican elected to the House in 2012, said the question isn’t whether Reives will be magnanimous in victory, but whether that attitude filters through his caucus.

“The reality is, when you’ve been sidelined for 16 years, and you get the megaphone, you’re going to want to use it,” Jeter said. “And sometimes that can create hurt feelings.”