North Carolina State Rep. Tricia Cotham is defecting from the Democratic Party, joining the GOP, and delivering Republicans supermajorities in both chambers of the state legislature.
Cotham announced her party switch on Wednesday, bashing Democrats on her way out. The move infuriated Democrats, and some even called for her to resign her seat.
“The modern-day Democratic Party has become unrecognizable to me and to so many others throughout this state and this country,” she said on Wednesday, adding that she and her family have suffered personal attacks from Democrats, according to The New York Times.
“They have pushed me out,” she said.
Cotham, whose family has deep roots in the Democratic Party, entered the North Carolina state House in 2007 and was a reliable vote for Democrats until 2017. She left office after losing a bid for Congress. She returned to the state House of Representatives earlier this year, according to the Charlotte Observer.
Cotham’s defection to the GOP gives Republicans veto-proof majorities in both chambers of the state legislature, a position Republicans could leverage to pass legislation over the opposition of North Carolina Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper.
Cooper called Cotham’s decision “disappointing.”
“Representative 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. 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,” he added, according to the Times.
CLICK HERE TO GET THE DAILYWIRE+ APP
Prior to her Wednesday announcement, Cotham made moves Tuesday showing her shifting allegiance. Aides cleared out her desk on the Democratic side of the House chamber and set Cotham up in a new desk on the Republican side.
Democrat State House Minority Leader Robert Reives on Tuesday accused Cotham of lying to her voters and called on her to resign.
“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. That is not the person those constituents campaigned for in a hard primary, and who they championed in a general election in a 60% Democratic district,” Reives said, according to National Review. “Those constituents deserved to know what values were most important to their elected representative.”
“Because of that, the appropriate action is for her to resign so that her constituents are fairly represented in the North Carolina House of Representatives,” Reives added.