On Obamacare, Tillis, like nearly every other Republican running for federal office, said, “I think we have to repeal it.” The new system hurts far more people than it benefits and is “unsustainable” in the long run, he said. Still, Tillis is concerned that Capitol Hill Republicans haven’t united behind an Obamacare alternative. “Republicans have to have an answer to the when-you-repeal-it-what-are-you-replacing-it-with question,” he said. “We owe the American people a solution to the problem.”

Tillis is under no illusions that the GOP, even if it controlled the House and Senate, could actually repeal Obamacare with its namesake still in the White House. And even after, given the structure of exchanges and subsidies that now exists, repeal can’t be done in one fell swoop. “I think you’re going to have to ramp it down,” Tillis said. “Any repeal measure needs to be married with how do you provide a landing, or a transition, to some of those who are on Obamacare.”

On immigration, Tillis called the Republicans who voted last year for the Gang of Eight bipartisan reform bill “well intentioned.” But he said the reform process “meandered and started expanding to a point where they lost sight of what needs to be done first” — that is, securing the border. Tillis said he would have voted “no” on the bill.

On last year’s government shutdown, Tillis tried to make clear that he would not have supported it, but he took care not to demean the motives of the Republicans who did. “I think what some of the members did was well-intentioned,” he said, but “you’ve got to fund government operations.”