North Carolina Democrat Flips To Republican Party—Grants State GOP A Supermajority

Rep. Tricia Cotham, serving as state representative for Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, announced Wednesday she would switch to the Republican Party after she said the state’s Democratic Party bullied its members “if you don’t do exactly what [they] want you to do.”

Republicans now hold the 72 seats required to hold a supermajority in the 120-seat House, complementing the party’s existing supermajority in the Senate, granting Republicans the ability to override vetoes from Gov. Roy Cooper (D).

Cotham was one of three House Democrats absent last week during a successful vote to override Cooper’s veto of a bill that repealed the state’s pistol permit purchasing system—allowing pistols to be purchased without a permit—though she later said she did not support the permit repeal.

House Minority Leader Robert Reives (D) urged for Cotham to resign in a statement Tuesday because she is “not the person” her constituents voted for.

Reives noted that Cotham campaigned for a number of progressive issues during her election campaign last year, including abortion rights, affordable health care, gun safety and civil rights.

Cotham’s website—which still says she is a Democrat—indicates she supports raising the minimum wage, the expansion of Medicaid and affordable housing, and promoting rights for LGBTQ+ youth because they are “under attack by Republican state legislatures across the country.”