A North Carolina Democrat reportedly jumped her party’s ship Tuesday, cementing the Republican supermajority in the state House of Representatives.
Rep. Tricia Cotham of Charlotte quietly joined the state’s GOP with no fanfare — only a favorite on a tweet welcoming her to the party’s ranks, WRAL News reported.
The Charlotte representative — who won the seat by nearly 20 percentage points last year after a crowded Democratic primary — is expected to make the formal announcement during a 9 a.m. press conference Wednesday alongside her new party mates, sources told Axios, which first broke the news.
A Republican House member told the outlet that the party had been hoping Cotham would switch parties at one point in the session, but the prospect became realistic last week.
Cotham’s reason for flipping is unclear, but the representative has recently come under fire from her Democratic colleagues for skipping a vote last week to override North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper’s veto of Republican-sponsored legislation relaxing some gun laws.
Without Cotham, and two other absent Democrats, Republicans were able to usher the bill into law.
With Cotham on their side, Republicans will dominate both the state House and Senate, as well as hand the party a veto-proof majority against the Democratic governor.
The Democratic backlash against Cotham only grew Tuesday as news of her secret switch broke, with her former colleagues calling on her to resign.
“Rep. Tricia Cotham campaigned as a Democrat and supporter of abortion rights, health care, public education, gun safety and civil rights,” said House Democratic Leader Robert Reives in a statement. “The voters of House District 112 elected her to serve as that person and overwhelmingly supported Democratic candidates up and down the ballot.”
“The appropriate action is for her to resign so that her constituents are fairly represented in the North Carolina House of Representatives.”
Anderson Clayton, the state’s Democratic party chair, and Jane White, Mecklenburg County’s Democratic party chair, reiterated Reives’ call for Cotham to step down, calling her “betrayal” a “deceit of the highest order.”
As of Tuesday evening, Cotham still identified as a Democrat on her campaign website.
She did not immediately respond to a request for comment.