Thomas Roland Tillis is an American businessman and politician of the Republican Party serving since 2015 as a United States senator from North Carolina. He served in the North Carolina House of Representatives from 2007 to 2015 and as the State House speaker from 2011 to 2015. Tillis was elected to the United States Senate in 2014, defeating Democratic incumbent Kay Hagan, and reelected in 2020. He became the state's senior U.S. senator when Richard Burr retired in 2023.