Just minutes after delivering a speech on the Senate floor to a nearly empty chamber, United States Senator Thom Tillis bursts through the front door of the Senate wing of the Capitol Building to traverse down the long series of concrete steps. Tillis had just finished a 15-minute soliloquy describing his position, as a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, on not filling a Supreme Court vacancy created by the death of Justice Antonin Scalia during the remaining nine months of President Barack Obama’s administration.
 
In the hallway outside the chamber, he stops to answer some questions from a member of the press corps, never short of words as the Senate scribe jots notes on his pad while three staff members dutifully stand a respectable distance away from the exchange.
 
Outside, across the expansive lawn on the Capitol grounds from the Library of Congress, are the subjects of his final scheduled official duty of the day, a 3:30 meet-and-greet with about 175 students from Pine Lake Prep. After Tillis concludes his interview and strides toward the door, two staff members head to the underground tunnel that connects the Capitol and the Dirksen Senate Office Building to transcribe his speech while a third, armed with a camera, follows Tillis down the steps. Waiting at the bottom is another staffer, legislative assistant Joe Nolan, waiting to whisk him away to the airport to catch a 5:18 flight to Raleigh.
 
As is often the case in the 114th Congress, there are no Friday votes scheduled and Tillis is free to leave to conduct business in state and eventually spend a little down time in his Huntersville home. But first he has that important meeting with some of his constituents, most all of whom will be old enough to vote when his current term expires in 2020.
 
While the students rush across the grounds to greet their hometown senator, Tillis stands a couple of steps above them so he can be seen and heard. He singles out the daughter of friend and former North Carolina House of Representatives colleague Charles Jeter, then tells the story, as he has many times before, about the beginnings of his unexpected political career and meteoric rise from private citizen and PTA president to North Carolina Speaker of the House and then to Capitol Hill.
 
“I got involved in politics because I wanted a bike trail,” he tells the students of his foray into parks and recreation activity, which eventually led to the Cornelius Town Board of Commissioners. The former Hopewell High School PTA president would later run against incumbent John Rhodes for the District 98 seat of the North Carolina House, which he would parlay into a house minority whip position and, four years later, two terms as Speaker of the House after playing a key role in leading Republicans to their first legislative majority in a century.
 
Now on this sunny, unseasonably warm March afternoon as the cherry blossoms wait to announce spring in the nation’s capital, he concludes another whirlwind week with the final duty of a whirlwind day as a U.S. senator, snapping selfies with everyone who wants one, even assuming a push-up position on the ground in front of the Capitol with several students for a photo.
 
The playful posing provided the closing act for a day dedicated to commitments, priorities and promises; a day like many others in the life of a U.S. senator.
 
‘Tell me where I’ll be’
 
Shortly before 8:30 a.m., Tillis arrives outside the Dirksen Building from his nearby Washington residence with suitcase in tow. He’s scheduled to appear at a breakfast across the street hosted by the University of North Carolina. One topic of the program is the amount of money UNC-Chapel Hill alone must invest each year in federal compliance programs, a whopping $200 million. Tillis tells the group he believes in punch lists and asks for one summarizing the university’s needs in that and other categories. Then, he is asked about the necktie he is wearing, a novelty tie emblazoned with images of the United States Constitution.
 
He’s wearing it for a special reason.
 
“I don’t normally wear novelty ties,” he replied, referencing his assignment to the Senate Judiciary Committee that, among other duties, is responsible for vetting and recommending candidates for federal judge positions, including the Supreme Court. “I didn’t request the Judiciary Committee and it turns out to be my favorite committee because it is hyper partisan. I don’t mean that in a bad way. It’s the one committee you go into knowing it’s going to be hyper partisan, so you and your colleagues on the other side of the aisle don’t take anything personally. For those old enough to remember the Foghorn Leghorn cartoon, it’s like the rooster and the dog. We clock in, beat the tar out of each other and we clock out. Today, I am wearing my Ronald Reagan brown suit and my tie and I am going to weave that in some sort of fashion in a meeting I will be involved in (starting at 10 a.m.).”
 
The appearance at the breakfast is followed by a brisk walk — Tillis doesn’t walk anywhere slowly— across the street to his amazingly conveniently located first-floor office at Dirksen, the first room you come to after clearing security. From his window he can look across the intersection at the Capitol dome, which has been surrounded by scaffolding since his swearing in last January while undergoing a facelift scheduled to be completed prior to next January’s Presidential inauguration ceremony. The scaffolding is an engineering marvel nearly as impressive as the dome itself, and it’s something Tillis has had his eye on for a while.
 
He excitedly informs some staff members that he had finally been approved for a close-up look at the work and that a tour of the scaffolding has been arranged in the coming weeks.
 
As staff members come and go inside the office tending to various facets of a senator’s business, he points to the expanse of a green wall, describing a “mountains to the sea” mural he hopes to have painted there soon.
 
Amid preparing for simultaneous meetings of the Judiciary Committee and the Armed Services Committee, of which Tillis is also a member, a scheduled 9:30 guest arrives, a Capitol employee from Burlington who is headed for a family reunion in April and wants to take with him a photo with his senator. After exchanging pleasantries for about five minutes, the man asks Tillis if he would be available to stop by the reunion.
 
“Tell me where I am going to be the fourth Saturday in April,” he requests of his staff, who generally know better than he where he’ll be every minute of the rest of this day, as well as seven weeks from now.
 
Mining for data
 
Both the Judiciary and Armed Services committee meetings begin at the same time, but in close proximity separated by one floor in the Dirksen Building and a nearby . At 10 a.m. Tillis checks in for the Armed Services Committee in the spacious hearing room where he held his swearing-in reception just 14 months ago. He must be counted present at roll call in order to ask a few questions of the commander of U.S. Southern Command about the security of American interests in Central America.
 
Simultaneously, Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa gavels in the start of the Judiciary Committee meeting. Once counted as present at Armed Services, a staffer remains behind to text Tillis when to return so he can pose his questions. He sprints down the steps to a more intimate room packed with senators, staffers, reporters and other interested observers as Grassley allows each member — alternating between Republicans and Democrats — to pontificate on their position regarding the committee’s obligations, or the lack thereof, in scheduling Supreme Court confirmation hearings.
 
In his Ronald Reagan suit and Constitution tie, Tillis waits at the end of the line for his turn to speak. It never arrives as he is called back to Armed Services, a higher priority in that his point has already been made, repeatedly, by his Republican colleagues on Judiciary. Sprinting back to the stairs and into Armed Services, Tillis soon asks his questions, hears the answers and, as the meeting is adjourned by Sen. John McCain, he disappears out a side door and strides quickly toward the underground trolley that connects Dirksen to the Capitol.
 
There’s going to be a vote on the Senate floor on a bill Tillis co-sponsored, the Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act (CARA), which brings together the experiences and recommendations of drug addiction experts, law enforcement, health care providers, first responders and patients most affected by the opioid epidemic. The legislation also addresses the strain the addiction crisis places on the criminal justice system by providing more resources to identify and treat incarcerated Americans, helping put them on the path to recovery, which is intended to help lower the nation’s recidivism and crime rates.
 
The bill, which passed 94-1, was the subject of an intense debate just more than a week ago as Tillis and veteran Senator Chuck Schumer went toe-to-toe on the Senate floor, Tillis accusing Schumer and Democrats of holding hostage the legislation in exchange for the Judiciary Committee moving forward with potential Supreme Court justice nominations. “I love a good scrap!” Tills told Schumer that day, referencing his time as North Carolina Speaker of the House. Schumer reminded Tillis of that comment in Thursday’s Judiciary Committee meeting, inviting a verbal sparring match over the confirmation process.
 
Less than 10 minutes after leaving Armed Services and heading to the Senate floor for the CARA vote, Tillis is back in his office preparing to head toward his next assignment, a speech at a luncheon for the National Mining Association at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel, a brief car ride from Capitol Hill. On the way he takes the opportunity to call his wife, Susan. Shifting gears from husband back to senator, he delivers a brief message to the miners group, then heads back to the car driven by legislative assistant Nolan. The weekly senators’ luncheon has just begun back at the Capitol Building.
 
This, Tillis says, was pretty much an average day. Many are much busier.
 
“My time in the legislature and my role as speaker helped prepare me, but it is far more challenging because of the intensity of the schedule, media scrutiny and the tyranny of distance,” says Tillis. “Average days during the week are 13 hours long and you got a bit of a taste for the pace. It was an average day ... many days are far more hectic.”
 
The home stretch
 
Not able to deliver his message regarding the Supreme Court in Judiciary, Tillis has prepared a speech for the Senate floor so it can be on the record. Shedding his suit coat for the first time of the day but with his Constitution tie still firmly knotted against his neck, he retreats to his private office to work on his speech and to make a scheduled phone call. His time slot for his speech is 3:05 p.m. and the Pine Lake students are scheduled to arrive at 3:30. It’s the first moment of the day when the senator can take a breath and prepare for his next assignment.
 
Admittedly as is his habit, though, he’s going to go off script, using his prepared speech more as a guideline. He doesn’t like to simply read. He prefers to discuss.
 
This discussion is mostly with a camera as Senate pages outnumber senators on the floor and tourist groups come and go in the upper gallery as Tillis speaks. A few hundred feet above him, workers continue putting a fresh face on the Capitol dome amid the scaffolding Tillis will soon be climbing.
 
Upstairs behind the chamber gallery, members of the press corps work on stories recapping the day’s events as one reporter waits on Tillis to finish so he can catch up with him on his way out.
 
His comments about the Supreme Court vacancy now on record, Tillis exits the chamber and heads toward his last appearance of the day, then off to the airport and a flight to his home state. But he won’t be going home. Not just yet. Mountain biking at Lake Norman State Park will have to wait for one more day. Senatorial duties await in Raleigh on Friday.
 
Home, and Susan, though, are never far from his mind.
 
“The last year was about as hectic as the campaign year,” Tillis says. “I have only spent two weekends in D.C. since I was sworn in 14 months ago, but being at home on weekends is rare. More than two consecutive nights in my own bed is a rare occurrence because I’m usually traveling across the state for either congressional or political activities.
 
“One way we balance it is to have Susan with me when I’m traveling in the state,” he adds, “but it is an area I need to work on. If you don’t focus on it, the job can consume you.”

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