‘Not the Democratic Party I grew up in.’ Pat Cotham talks about daughter’s GOP switch
For NC Rep. Tricia Cotham, being a Democrat was a part of her identity from a young age.
At 12, she was registering people to vote. As a child, she worked to get Harvey Gantt elected Charlotte mayor. She was the only Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools student to ride in Bill Clinton’s motorcade during an early ‘90s visit because of her voter registration advocacy. She was former U.S. Sen. John Edwards’ first intern on Capitol Hill.
Her mom, who serves in an at-large seat on the Mecklenburg Board of County Commissioners as a Democrat, fondly remembered those memories in an interview with The Charlotte Observer Wednesday. But she still wasn’t shocked to see her daughter tell TV cameras Wednesday that she’s switching to become a Republican.
“I knew she was frustrated from the very beginning and from day one, at the legislature she was shocked by how she was treated. And she talked about that a little bit, you know, that she was sidelined pretty much and she was a freshman even though she served 10 years,” Pat Cotham said. “As a parent, you never want your son or daughter to experience a lot of pain, but she has experienced pain. And we knew it was gonna get worse.”
The younger Cotham joined the legislature by appointment in 2007 as a replacement for former House Speaker James B. Black, who resigned before pleading guilty to corruption charges. She served until 2017 after she unsuccessfully ran for Congress in 2016, and she succeeded when she tried in 2022 to rejoin the legislature.
Rep. Cotham’s switch has the North Carolina politics sphere buzzing about how a new Republican supermajority in the House could shift state policy. Before the announcement, Republicans successfully voted to override a veto by the governor on a gun rights bill. Rep. Cotham is also seen as a swing vote on some legislative issues.
That she’s joined the House Republican Caucus means the NCGOP has enough votes to override a veto without any Democratic help.
If Gov. Roy Cooper wants to protect his veto power, Commissioner Cotham said, he needs to talk to members of the caucus to get their votes when the time comes.
‘Not the Democratic Party I grew up in’
After she got elected in 2022, Rep. Cotham was sometimes left out of Democratic Caucus meetings and was told to stop posting American flag emojis on social media, Commissioner Cotham said. Her mother said Rep. Cotham told family members of her decision a few days before she officially made the announcement.
Commissioner Cotham said she’s seen both the Democratic and Republican parties become more “toxic and vicious” toward each other.
“That wasn’t the Democratic Party that she was involved in when she was younger,” Commissioner Cotham said. “It’s not the Democratic Party I grew up in.”
Last year, Charlotte-Mecklenburg school board member Jennifer De La Jara wrote an opinion column published in alt-weekly Queen City Nerve accusing Commissioner Cotham of being a Republican herself (Commissioner Cotham said she hasn’t read it). But despite the criticism and her acknowledgment that the parties have changed, Commissioner Cotham said she has no plans to make the same switch as her daughter.
“I kept telling her, you have got to live with this,” Commissioner Cotham said. “Whatever you do, I will be supportive of you. I’m a mother, I’m not gonna disown you.”
