North Carolina Democrat Switches Parties, Gives State Republicans Majority in House
Democratic representative Tricia Cotham, who represents the deep-blue seat of Charlotte, N.C., crossed the political aisle and joined state Republicans on Tuesday, handing the party a crucial supermajority.
Representative Cotham was only in the post for five months before she decided to switch political allegiances, gifting Republicans the power to override Democratic governor Roy Cooper’s vetoes and new powers to dictate the legislative agenda.
“The modern-day Democratic Party has become unrecognizable to me and to so many others throughout this state and this country,” Coltham announced during a recent press conference.
“The Party wants to villainize anyone who has free thought, free judgment, has solutions,” adding “If you don’t do exactly what the Democrats want you to do, they will try to bully you. They will try to cast you aside.”
Democrats will "villainize anyone who has free thought, free judgement, has solutions," says North Carolina State Rep Tricia Cotham after switching parties.
"If you don't do exactly what the Democrats want you to do, they will try to bully you. They will try to cast you aside." pic.twitter.com/Jhnn1TxXjK
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) April 5, 2023
Cotham’s move strengthens Republicans in the House, giving them a supermajority to match their dominance of the Senate.
Governor Cooper called Cotham’s switch “disappointing” and warned about the broader legislative implications of the change.
“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,” the governor noted in a statement. “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.”
Democratic representative Cecil Brockman, whom some see as a political moderate, sympathized with Cotham’s departure and placed the lion’s share of the blame on his own party.
“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.
The news led Democratic House minority leader Representative Robert Reives to demand Cotham resign in a press conference Tuesday.
“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,” Reives added.
While Cotham had regularly voted across the political aisle prior to her official departure from the Democratic Party, there are still many issues that make her an outlier among Republicans.
On the Representative’s 2022 campaign website, Cotham is unequivocal about the importance of protecting LGBTQ+ rights that “are under attack by Republican state legislatures across the country.”
“I will stand strong against discriminatory legislation and work to pass more protections at the state level.”
Cotham has also been outspoken about her personal experience with abortion, speaking publicly in 2015 about undergoing the procedure due to life-threatening complications.
“It was awful, it was painful, and it was sad. It was, and is, personal,” she said at the time. “This decision was up to me, my husband, my doctor and my God. It was not up to any of you in this chamber, and I didn’t take a survey.”
“Abortion is a deeply personal decision,” Cotham added. “My womb and my uterus is not up for your political grab. Legislators — you — do not hold shares in my body, so stop trying to manipulate my mind.”
