Mecklenburg Democrats rallied Sunday afternoon to protest State Rep. Tricia Cotham’s switch less than two weeks ago from the Democratic to Republican Party — a move that gave the GOP a supermajority in the General Assembly.
While the 2024 election is 19 months away, Democrats are trying to tap into the anger over Cotham’s switch. She flipped parties four months after she won a heavily Democratic district that includes east Charlotte and Mint Hill.
Democratic Congressman Jeff Jackson, of Charlotte, said residents of Cotham’s district haven’t been forgotten, even if they feel deceived.
“What this signifies is our commitment to work ever harder on behalf of these people whose values we share, whose values we promote, whose values we fight for and whose representatives told them very clearly so did she,” Jackson said at the Mecklenburg Democratic Party headquarters in east Charlotte. “Until she decided to deceive all of them.”
Jackson added: “That’s what happened. That’s why we are here. And we’re not going to take it lying down. We’re not going to let those people not have a voice.”
Charlotte’s other member of Congress, Democrat Alma Adams, also attended the event.
Cotham said she switched parties because other Democrats in the legislature shunned her and bullied her for sometimes working with Republicans. She said she was criticized for placing an American flag and a prayer emoji on her social media accounts. And she said Democrats told her not to come to their caucus meetings because they considered her a “spy.”
Cotham served in the General Assembly as a Democrat from 2007-17. Her mother is Pat Cotham, a longtime Mecklenburg County commissioner, a Democrat who's frequently the top vote-getter on the commission. Tricia Cotham didn’t run for reelection in 2018, but returned to the legislature last year.
Her mostly blue district includes four precincts in Mint Hill that former president Donald Trump won in 2020. But most of the people in her district live in heavily Democratic east Charlotte. President Biden won the seat by more than 20 percentage points.
Though the GOP is now able to override vetoes by Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper without any help from Democrats, it’s unclear how Cotham will vote on issues like abortion and transgender athlete restrictions.
At a news conference nearly two weeks ago announcing her switch, she said she would not comment on legislation she hasn’t seen. She had previously voted this year with other Democrats to codify abortion rights.
The rally was originally supposed to be held at a public park in Mint Hill.
But after pushback from the former executive director of the state Republican Party, Dallas Woodhouse, Democrats moved the event to their headquarters, which is also in the district. Woodhouse said Democrats would be targeting Cotham’s family by going door-to-door in her community.
Democratic Party chair Anderson Clayton told about 75 supporters Sunday that after Cotham’s switch, Democrats are now in a “super-minority.”
“What that means is that everything in this cycle is on the line,” she said. “Voting rights are on the line. LGBTQ rights are on the line. Abortion rights are on the line. Our rights as human beings, our right to live and exist and be who we want to be in this world is being threatened right now by the Republican General Assembly.”
After the rally at the county Democratic headquarters, some volunteers knocked on doors to try to talk to voters.
Cotham’s district, however, will almost certainly change ahead of next year’s election, as Republican lawmakers try and draw her a seatthat gives a Republican a better chance of winning.
