North Carolina Rep. Tricia Cotham completes move to Republican Party
READ MORE
The party switch
On April 5, 2023, Democratic N.C. House Rep. Tricia Cotham switched to the Republican Party, provoking polarizing reactions across the state. The move has had a ripple effect in North Carolina state politics. Read coverage from The News & Observer and The Charlotte Observer on the move and the aftermath.
Expand All
North Carolina Rep. Tricia Cotham completed her move to the Republican Party Monday, with the Mecklenburg County Board of Elections confirming it had received paperwork from Cotham requesting her party affiliation be changed from Democratic to Republican.
By Monday evening, the paperwork had been processed, and Cotham’s voter registration in the State Board of Elections website showed her party as Republican.
Cotham announced last week she was leaving the Democratic Party, her political home for her entire adult life, due to what she said was an inhospitable environment for moderate and independently minded lawmakers. She said the party, which her family has been a major part of for decades, had become unrecognizable to her, and said she was joining the GOP because she felt she could no longer vote her conscience as a Democrat.
Democrats in the General Assembly and in party leadership immediately called on Cotham to resign and said her defection to the GOP, which guarantees the Republican Party a veto-proof majority for the remainder of Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper’s second term in office, amounted to a “betrayal” of her constituents.
The soonest Cotham will be able to vote on legislation as a Republican, now that her affiliation has been changed, is next week, when the legislature returns to Raleigh.
This story was originally published April 11, 2023 at 11:01 AM.
