Former North Carolina Democrat Tricia Cotham has switched parties. The Republican Party will now control a supermajority in the state legislature.
On Wednesday, Cotham informed her fellow Democrats that she was quitting the party. The Democrats were outraged by her actions, and some even demanded that she resign.
“I and so many other people in this state and country don’t recognize the modern Democratic Party,” she said on Wednesday. She allegedly added that Democrats had made “personal charges” against her and her family, as reported by the New York Times.
She explained, “They evicted me.”
Cotham has consistently backed the Democratic Party since his election to the North Carolina General Assembly in 2007. His whole family were die-hard Democrats. She ultimately left because she was unsuccessful in her bid for Congress. She has reportedly returned to the state legislature, per the Charlotte Observer.
Cotham’s defection to the GOP has given that party a majority in the state legislature. Governor Roy Cooper is a Democrat, and his ability to reject legislation is hampered by this.
Cotham’s actions, according to Cooper, were disappointing.
What our representative decides on important issues like abortion access, LGBTQ people’s right to vote, and funding for effective public schools will have far-reaching consequences for the future of our state. In an interview with the Times, he said, “It’s hard to believe that she would give up on these long-held beliefs, and she should still vote the way she has always said she would vote on these issues, no matter what party she belongs to.”
Cotham’s words and actions on Wednesday foreshadowed her shifting allegiance the day before. Cotham was handed a new desk on the Republican half of the room while the Democratic side was tidied up.
On Tuesday, Robert Reives, leader of the Democratic caucus in the State House, said that Cotham had misled to her constituents and called for her resignation.
After serving only a brief period in the House, Rep. Cotham has already switched political affiliations. House District 112 residents of California were unaware of that individual. Reives told National Review that sixty percent of his district’s voters identify as Democrats but still didn’t support him in the race. The people they had chosen deserved to know how that individual felt about issues that were meaningful to them.
Reives argued that she should resign as a result of the controversy in order to better represent her people in the North Carolina General Assembly.