Betrayal in the House
Representative Tricia Cotham personally handed supermajority control of the NC House to its pro-polluter partisan leadership last week, in a news conference where she announced her change in party affiliation from Democrat to Republican. Cotham’s switch provided the 72nd vote needed in the House to overturn Gov. Roy Cooper’s vetoes on a party-line vote.
Voters in her district and citizen advocates statewide expressed outrage at Cotham’s decision, calling it a betrayal of the voters who elected her just last November in an overwhelmingly Democratic district in Mecklenburg County. Widespread calls for her resignation went unheeded by the former five-term (2007-2017) Democratic House member. Cotham lost a Democratic primary contest for Congress in 2016, and had been out of office since that time before winning nomination and election as a Democrat again last year.
Observers scoffed at Cotham’s claim that she faced a “turning point” in her thinking due to alleged criticism over trivialities such as her use of praying hands emojis on social media. They said that coming from a seasoned politician and veteran of multiple campaigns over nearly two decades, the claim that the party under whose banner she campaigned in November had suddenly become “unrecognizable” to her in April fails the basic laugh test.
NCLCV Director of Governmental Relations Dan Crawford called Cotham’s action an “act of betrayal” against the voters who elected her in November. He said, “Turncoat Tricia needs to have the courage of her convictions and resign and let the people who elected her make a worthy replacement that represents the values they voted for in November.”
NC Democratic Party Chair Anderson Clayton called for Cotham’s resignation. She called Cotham’s decision “a deceit of the highest order. It is a betrayal to the people of Mecklenburg County with repercussions not only for the people of her district but for the entire state of North Carolina.” Other citizen advocacy organizations joining “the chorus calling for her [Cotham’s] resignation“ included Equality North Carolina, which had endorsed Cotham in her Democratic primary contest last year.
