The North Carolina Republican had already made up his mind to leave the Senate, but the run-in with the president over Medicaid moved up the timeline of the announcement.

Even the most competitive and evenly balanced states are infected by the same contagion as the hardened one-party states.

GOP Sen. Thom Tillis was back on Capitol Hill on Monday as Senate Republicans struggled to pass their "One Big Beautiful Bill Act" he opposes -- before President Donald Trump's July Fourth deadline. "I may look for an opportunity to speak again,