Source: Editorial Board
It was a stunning move. Longtime Democratic Representative Tricia Cotham, who had very recently campaigned on abortion rights, gun reform, and LGBTQ rights, announced in April 2023 that she was switching parties and becoming a Republican.
Cotham’s party switch gave Republicans a supermajority in the North Carolina General Assembly and allowed them to override a series of Governor Cooper’s vetoes. First on the agenda – a sweeping abortion ban with harsh new restrictions. Cotham voted for the ban despite years of vocal support for abortion rights, including a 2015 speech where she discussed her abortion and decried Republicans taking away women’s rights.
Other legislative moves enabled by Cotham include restrictions on LGBTQ rights, changes to election laws, a reduction in the powers of the governor, and more money funneled to private school families at the expense of North Carolina’s public schools.
Cotham betrayed the constituents who elected her and made it more dangerous to be a pregnant person in North Carolina. In return, her fellow Republicans–in charge of redistricting–drew her a new legislative district to run for office in: House District 105. HD 105 is a winding new district that snakes throughout southern Mecklenburg County to pick up as many conservative voters as possible, in an area that’s otherwise trending leftward.
Whereas her current district voted for President Biden 61% to 38% in 2020, the new district she is running favors Republicans 52% to 45%, according to previous election data, giving her a much better chance at staying in power despite the damage she has done.
However, Cotham faces a strong opponent in Democrat Nicole Sidman. Sidman is an attorney, social justice advocate, and former campaign manager and she has outraised Cotham by more than a 4:1 margin. Sidman’s campaign manager Anna Fiore anticipates that their campaign’s momentum will “only get more intense from here.”
