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Noted in case it ever becomes relevant in another election context:

Speaking in High Point Thursday night, House Speaker Thom Tillis made a plea to both Republican and Democratic partisans to shy away from extreme positions and cooperate. He was responding to a question about lowering the threshold for unaffiliated candidates to get on the ballot and said he favored such a move.

“This state, I hate to break it to anybody who may be to the extreme left or extreme right, it’s a centrist state," Tillis said. "And there are probably two groups of people who are unaffiliated. There are ones who are politically independent … Or they’re so right wing or left wing, they don’t think either party right or left wing enough to be associated with. But I think they’re the minority of the group of independents. Our task as Republicans … in order for conservative ideology, Republican ideology to have a chance, we’ve got to resonate with independent unaffiliated voters in this state.”

Given that the Republican presidential primary has turned into an argument over who is the more “reliable” conservative, it struck me that Tillis’ remarks might not necessarily go down with the base who helps decide big, statewide primaries. After the town hall, I asked him about his remarks and how they might play with what is apparently the sentiments among Republican primary voters this season.

“I think that’s primary politics,” Tillis said. “I think if you just take a look at history, North Carolina has proven not to be an extreme left or right wing state. I mean that’s the reality if you take a look at the polling data … it hasn’t varied substantially over the last 10 years.”

Noted.