Republican delegates in North Carolina voted Saturday at their annual convention to censure U.S. Senator Thom Tillis for backing LGBTQ+ rights, immigration and gun violence policies.
Tillis has gained influence in Congress for his willingness to work across the aisle, but his record of supporting some key policies has raised concerns among some state Republicans that the senator has strayed from conservative values.
Several delegates in Greensboro criticized Tillis, who has held his seat in the Senate since 2015, for his work last year on the Respect For Marriage Act, which enshrined protections for same-sex and interracial marriages in federal law.
Both the state and national GOP platforms oppose same-sex marriage. But Tillis, who had opposed it earlier in his political career, was among the early supporters of the law who lobbied his GOP colleagues in Congress to vote in favor of it.