Why Tillman would favor new cruisers over rebuilds

Would Senator Tillman have supported extensive armored-cruiser rebuilds?

Only alongside new construction; his priority would remain new cruisers and the shipyard employment they generated.

A Pennsylvania- or Tennessee-class rebuild could fit in an existing yard, so the obstacle was not simply physical capacity. Tillman's central political objective was new construction that produced visible contracts and continuing shipyard employment. A reconstruction might preserve an old hull but could also displace the future orders on which those jobs depended. He would therefore support major rebuilds only alongside a continuing new-cruiser program, linking procurement choices directly to constituency politics.