NC speaker Tillis relaxes by riding mountain bikes

When he’s not sponsoring legislation or debating line items in the state budget, N.C. Speaker of the House Thom Tillis often can be found riding his mountain bike around the legislative mall.

Tillis is an avid single-track mountain biker, a hobby which requires a lot of practice and focus and serves as a diversion from the pressure and stress of North Carolina politics, he said.

“I tend to love being outdoors,” said Tillis, who has traveled as far as Utah to go mountain biking.

Tillis said he practices mountain biking after hours while the N.C. General Assembly is in session.

He said he uses the stairwells in the legislative complex to make his own urban mountain bike trails.

The Speaker enjoys other outdoor hobbies as well.

“I play a lot of disc golf,” Tillis said, adding that he frequently plays with his legislative staff.

Tillis said hobbies such as mountain biking, disc golf and wake boarding allow him to keep his mind off work for awhile.

“I do believe that these kinds of things give me the kind of balance that makes me a better legislator,” he said.

Tillis was named Speaker in January, following a landslide election of Republicans into the previously Democrat-dominated legislature.

Jonathan Edelman, a sophomore at UNC, said he does not think Tillis’ hobbies make it easier for him to identify with the speaker.
Edelman said that if he dislikes a politician for his policies, he will not change his opinion based on the politician’s hobbies.

If their personal lives are not affecting how they make policy, then it is not that relevant, he said.

Andrew Heil, a junior at UNC, said he would not judge politicians based on their extra-curricular interests or hobbies.

“Their hobbies should not have a lot to do with how they are as a politician,” he said.

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