Republicans were handed a veto-proof supermajority in the North Carolina state House on Wednesday after Democratic State Rep. Tricia Cotham switched parties.
Cotham, who won her election as a Democrat by nearly 20 points in a blue district, said she decided to leave the party because the “modern-day Democratic Party has become unrecognizable to me.”
“The party wants to villainize anyone who has free thought, free judgment, has solutions, who wants to get to work to better our state, not just sit in a meeting and have a workshop after a workshop. If you don’t do exactly what the Democrats want you to do, they will try to bully you. They will try to cast you aside,” she said during a press conference at Republican Party headquarters in Raleigh with North Carolina GOP leaders, according to NBC News.
Republicans already held a supermajority in the North Carolina Senate. Cotham’s switch means Republicans now have 72 seats in the House securing a supermajority that can override any veto from Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper.
Cooper called Cotham’s decision “disappointing” in a statement.
“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 added. “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.”
Other Democrats slammed Cotham for her decision and called for her resignation.
North Carolina Democratic Party Chair Anderson Clayton and Mecklenburg County Democratic Party Chair Jane Whitley called Cotham’s move “deceit of the highest order,” and said she should resign, NBC reports.
“Rep. Cotham’s decision is a betrayal to the people of HD-112 with repercussions not only for the people of her district, but for the entire state of North Carolina,” they said. “If she can no longer represent the values her constituents trusted her to champion, she should resign immediately.”
Democratic leader of the state House Rep. Robert Reives, said the “appropriate” thing for Cotham to do was to “resign so that her constituents are fairly represented.”
“Rep. Tricia Cotham campaigned as a Democrat and supporter of abortion rights, health care, public education, gun safety, and civil rights,” Reives said in a statement. “Now, just a few months later, Rep. Cotham is changing parties. That is not the person that was presented to the voters of House District 112 … and who they championed in a general election in a 60% Democratic district.”
The move has massive implications since Republicans will now be able to pass more restrictive abortion bans and other conservative polices without the threat of Gov. Cooper vetoing their legislations.
