NC Rep. Tricia Cotham reportedly planning to switch parties, giving GOP supermajority

Update: State Rep. Tricia Cotham, a Mecklenburg Democrat, announced Wednesday that she is switching parties. For more on that decision, read this story.

State Rep. Tricia Cotham, a Mecklenburg Democrat, will formally switch parties and join the House Republican caucus.

Cotham, who has earned a reputation as a swing vote due to her willingness to vote with Republicans on certain key bills, is expected to publicly announce her decision to change party affiliation on Wednesday, according to Axios Raleigh, which was the first to report the news. The Mecklenburg County Board of Elections said Tuesday Cotham hadn’t made the switch yet and there weren’t any pending requests for a party switch.

House Minority Leader Robert Reives, acknowledging Cotham’s decision on Tuesday, called on her to resign.

Reives said Cotham had campaigned as a Democrat and someone who supported abortion rights, health care, public education, gun safety and civil rights, and that voters in her district “elected her to serve as that person and overwhelmingly supported Democratic candidates up and down the ballot.”

“Now, just a few months later, Rep. Cotham is changing parties. That is not the person that was presented to the voters of House District 112. That is not the person those constituents campaigned for in a hard primary, and who they championed in a general election in a 60% Democratic district,” Reives said in a statement. “Those constituents deserved to know what values were most important to their elected representative.”

“Because of that, the appropriate action is for her to resign so that her constituents are fairly represented in the North Carolina House of Representatives,” he said.

Cotham didn’t respond to several messages left by The News & Observer and Charlotte Observer. She left the House floor Tuesday afternoon without taking any questions.

A party switch by Cotham would mean Republicans control 72 out of 120 House seats, giving them enough seats to override vetoes by Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper without any Democratic votes. Republicans in the Senate already have a supermajority in that chamber, controlling 30 out of 50 seats.

A spokesperson for GOP House Speaker Tim Moore declined to comment, but later on Tuesday, Moore’s office announced a press conference at the N.C. GOP headquarters in Raleigh on Wednesday morning. The notice said House and Senate GOP leaders, as well as GOP U.S. Rep. Dan Bishop, would make an announcement along with Cotham.

As the news conference was set to begin, Republican Party Chairman Michael Whatley released a statement with U.S. Sens. Thom Tillis and Ted Budd celebrating Cotham’s change.

“This announcement continues to reflect that the Democratic Party is too radical for North Carolina,” Whatley said. “The values of the Republican Party align with voters, and the people of Mecklenburg County should be proud to have her representation in Raleigh.”

Tillis called Cotham a welcome addition to the caucus. He once served as the state’s House speaker and the pair joined the chamber together in 2007, though Cotham has not served continually in her role.

“She is a no-nonsense legislator who works hard to make a positive difference for all North Carolinians,” Tillis said.

Budd blamed Democrat’s “extreme agenda” for hurting North Carolina families and causing voters to leave the party.

“Far left Democrats will only fight for a radical, woke agenda — not for good, hardworking people,” Budd said. “Rep. Cotham’s historic announcement highlights that Republicans are the only party focused on the bottom line for taxpayers here at home.“

Gov. Roy Cooper talks about veto power

Cotham’s decision to become a Republican would have major ramifications for the last two years of Cooper’s final term, since GOP leaders, having come within one seat of total legislative control, have promised to revisit bills the governor successfully vetoed in the past, and pass contentious bills on their own.

In Charlotte before news of Cotham’s switch, reporters asked Cooper whether he was worried about the legislature’s ability to override his veto.

“Sure, yeah. You know, we know that it’s important to have a good balance of government but unfortunately we have severely gerrymandered districts that causes significant problems,” Cooper said.

Cooper said he planned to continue to use his veto when needed when asked about the successful override last week of Senate Bill 41, which eliminated the state’s pistol permit requirement. He also touted bipartisan legislation, including just-passed Medicaid expansion.

Later Tuesday, Cooper issued a statement on the Cotham news: “This is a disappointing decision. Rep. Cotham’s votes on women’s reproductive freedom, election laws, LGBTQ rights and strong public schools will determine the direction of the state we love. It’s hard to believe she would abandon these long held principles and she should still vote the way she has always said she would vote when these issues arise, regardless of party affiliation.”

NC Democrat Tricia Cotham changes parties, betraying her own words to voters | Opinion

Tuesday afternoon, ahead of a 4:30 p.m. House session, staff members were seen clearing out the desk where Cotham sat this session, on the Democratic side of the House, so she can move to a new desk on the Republican side.

Fellow Democrat doesn’t blame Cotham ‘one bit’

Democratic Sen. Natasha Marcus of Mecklenburg, said that if Cotham had “been honest before the election, she would not have won her seat.”

“The people of her district do not support the extreme rightwing policies that the NCGOP is shoving down our throats, now with her help,” Marcus said on Twitter. “This is dishonest and undemocratic.”

On the other hand, Rep. Cecil Brockman, a Guilford Democrat, said Democrats only had themselves to blame.

He pointed to the barrage of criticism he and Cotham received from within the party last week, along with another Democrat, Rep. Michael Wray of Halifax County, when Republicans were able to successfully override Cooper’s veto of controversial gun rights legislation that repealed the state’s permit law for buying handguns.

The override vote was the first time Republicans had successfully overturned a veto from the governor since 2018, and came down to absences by Brockman, Cotham and Wray. The fewer number of voting lawmakers translated to a lower threshold for Republicans to override the veto. With three absences, Republicans needed 71 votes, not 72.

Brockman said he thought the reaction from Democrats and party officials had pushed Cotham to switch parties. He also said he knows how she feels, and doesn’t blame her “one bit.”

“I think she just wanted to do what’s best for her district and when you’re constantly talked about and trashed — especially the way that we have been over the past few weeks — I think this is what happens,” Brockman told The News & Observer.

Asked what he thought about Cotham’s decision resulting in a proper Republican supermajority, Brockman said Democrats should be more introspective.

“I hope the (Democratic) party takes a strong look at how they react to people making the decisions that they make — they put themselves in this position,” Brockman said.

Rep. John Torbett, a Gaston Republican, said he felt Cotham’s switch over to his party was “an exciting thing.”

“I think it was a personal decision on her,” Torbett said. “She’s a fine woman, been here before, obviously knows the ropes and you’ll have to ask her as to the necessity of the change.”

Charlotte Democrats call for Cotham’s resignation

Mecklenburg County Democratic Party Chair Jane Whitley called Cotham’s switch “deceit of the highest order” and said she should resign.

“Rep. Cotham’s decision is a betrayal to the people in HD-112 with repercussions not only for the people of her district, but for the entire state of North Carolina,” Whitley said. “If she can no longer represent the values her constituents trusted her to champion, she should resign immediately.”

Dan McCorkle, a Charlotte Democratic strategist, said he felt betrayed by news of Cotham’s party switch. It wasn’t entirely surprising, he said, but that didn’t ease the sting of a switch months after helping her win.

“I guess we saw this coming,” McCorkle said. “But she won in a Democratic primary and won being the strongest Democrat with the most experience.”

Cotham won the 2022 general election for the 112th House District with 59.22% of the vote in November and finished atop a four-candidate primary in May 2022 with 47.81% of the vote. McCorkle said it’s unlikely Cotham would win the same district in 2024 because of its strong Democratic preference.

Morgan Jackson, co-founder of Raleigh-based Nexus Strategies, worked on Cotham’s 2022 campaign and said the Mecklenburg legislator is no longer one of the firm’s clients.

“We work to elect Democrats, not Republicans,” Jackson said.

She first joined the legislature in 2007 after former Democratic House Speaker James B. Black resigned amid a corruption scandal. At 28, she became the youngest member of the General Assembly when Mecklenburg County Democrats appointed her to Black’s former seat.

She left the legislature in 2016 after an unsuccessful bid for the 12 Congressional District seat and returned this year.

But Cotham started voting against her district’s desires months after being elected to the legislature, McCorkle said.

“I worked for her and we’re all betrayed. I’m betrayed,” he said.

Mecklenburg County Sheriff Garry McFadden, a Democrat, expressed his frustrations trying to contact Cotham about the pistol permit repeal bill, SB 41, in an op-ed submitted to the Observer.

“The people of Mecklenburg County deserve better than an elected representative, regardless of her political party, who won’t return a phone call, a voicemail, an email, or a personal note left at her office, when those messages are from the Sheriff, regardless of his political party, who wants to talk about legislation affecting public safety, law enforcement, the Sheriff’s duties and responsibilities or — in the case of SB41 — all of the above,” McFadden wrote.

McCorkle questioned the timing of the news — as former President Donald Trump, a Republican, was being arraigned in a New York courtroom on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records.

“She’s joining the party of Donald Trump,” McCorkle said.

McClatchy DC reporter Danielle Battaglia and Charlotte Observer reporter Genna Contino contributed.