A North Carolina state lawmaker elected as a Democrat is defecting to the GOP, handing Republicans a veto-proof supermajority in the state’s legislature.
Rep. Tricia Cotham’s party change gives the GOP more power over key issues such as abortion and elections.
Announcing the flip Wednesday, Cotham cited her treatment by Democrats as her motivation. “They have pushed me out. They’ve made it very clear they do not want me,” she said at a news conference at the North Carolina GOP headquarters in Raleigh.
Cotham, wearing red and standing in front of NCGOP signs, said the turning point in her decision was when she faced backlash for using the American flag and a prayer-hands emoji in her social media handles and on her vehicles.
She said she’s been “bullied” for not toeing the party line. She accused Gov. Roy Cooper (D) and the state Democratic Party of demanding she follow the lead of top state officials.
Reports first surfaced of Cotham’s switch Tuesday, prompting North Carolina Democrats to call for Cotham’s resignation for her “deceit” and “betrayal.”
The change, first reported by Axios Raleigh, comes in the middle of the legislative session during which Cooper signed into law bipartisan legislation expanding Medicaid and tried to use his veto to stop a Republican bill expanding gun access. Cooper called Cotham’s move “disappointing.”
“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,” Cooper said in a statement to The Washington Post. “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.”
Cotham, who represents part of Mecklenburg County, beat her Republican opponent by nearly 20 percentage points last year after a crowded Democratic primary. She ran on raising the minimum wage to at least $15 per hour, championing LGBTQ rights and expanding access to Medicaid, voting and affordable housing, according to her campaign website.
Cotham did not return requests for comment Tuesday but appeared at the Wednesday news conference with North Carolina Republican leaders. She said she changed parties in part because she felt she couldn’t freely express herself as a Democrat without facing internal criticism, often publicly.
In last year’s midterm elections, North Carolina Republicans won a supermajority in the Senate — meaning they hold 60 percent of seats — and were one seat shy of the same in the House. Now, Cotham becomes the 72nd Republican in the 120-seat state House, getting the GOP to the 60 percent threshold there, too.
At the news conference, multiple Republicans noted the implications of adding Cotham to their caucus in the House.
“That’s a supermajority, in case you’re keeping count,” North Carolina House Majority Leader John Bell said.
State House Speaker Tim Moore said that adding Cotham would make legislating easier. With the addition of Cotham — who was endorsed by Emily’s List, a national group that backs female Democrats who support abortion rights — the GOP could override vetoes on issues such as abortion, education and elections.
Emily’s List President Laphonza Butler said in a statement to The Post that the organization is rescinding its support of Cotham.
“Representative Cotham is joining a Republican caucus that has stridently opposed abortion rights, rolled back voting rights, and imposed deep cuts on public education for years,” Butler said. She added that the group would continue helping elect Democratic women who support abortion rights and called North Carolina Republicans’ agenda “extreme, out-of-touch and cruel.”
Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel celebrated Cotham’s defection, suggesting it reflects a national trend. “Even in a Biden district in a purple state, Democrats are reading the writing on the wall,” she told The Post in a statement.
Some Republican leaders at the news conference said their side did not have the level of incivility and demands to stick to the party line that Cotham described in the Democratic Party. The conference came one day after former president Donald Trump pleaded not guilty to 34 felony counts related to payments intended to silence an adult-film actress during his 2016 presidential campaign. Trump has repeatedly called out his Republican critics when they voice opposition to him.
Before this legislative session started, Cooper had vetoed 47 bills in the past four years, according to NC Newsline. The governor has two years left in his second term.
Last week, Cotham and two of her Democratic colleagues missed a vote to override Cooper’s veto of a bill that would end permit requirements for handguns. Those three absences lowered the number of votes needed to reach the override threshold of three-fifths of members present, leading to Republicans’ first override against the Democratic governor since 2018.
Cotham at the time said she was against the repeal but had to miss the vote for a medical appointment. Nonetheless, she drew blowback from fellow Democrats.
Moore said that conversations with Cotham began over the past few weeks as the former Democrat felt she was voting against her conscience. Moore added that Cotham is not the only Democrat he’s spoken to in recent weeks, hinting that more lawmakers could follow Cotham in switching parties.
Cotham did not clearly state how she’d vote on potential legislation limiting abortion when asked at the news conference, a national issue that helped catapult Janet Protasiewicz to the Wisconsin Supreme Court on Tuesday ahead of an abortion case.
State Democrats called for Cotham’s resignation.
“Rep. Tricia Cotham campaigned as a Democrat and supporter of abortion rights, health care, public education, gun safety, and civil rights,” said House Democratic Leader Robert Reives in a statement Tuesday. “The voters of House District 112 elected her to serve as that person and overwhelmingly supported Democratic candidates up and down the ballot.”
Because Cotham is changing parties, he added, “the appropriate action is for her to resign so that her constituents are fairly represented in the North Carolina House of Representatives.”
Local, state and national Democratic leaders echoed Reives’s call for Cotham to resign. Anderson Clayton, the state’s Democratic Party chair, and Jane White, Mecklenburg County’s Democratic Party chair, said in a statement that Cotham’s move is “deceit of the highest order.”
Heather Williams, interim president of the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee, which focuses on electing local and state Democrats, said Cotham is “placing politics” over the interests of her constituents.
“Rep. Cotham is pulling a bait and switch on her constituents,” Williams said in a statement. “Her constituents deserve the leadership they voted for.”