North Carolina Republicans in the state legislature undoubtedly are feeling really good this week after Rep. Tricia Cotham informed them that she was ready to formally switch from Democrat to Republican, effectively giving House Republicans a veto-proof majority against Democrat Gov. Roy Cooper, who has vetoed a record 76 bills during his time in office.
During a press conference Wednesday, Cotham officially announced her decision, and laid bare exactly why she no longer felt welcomed in the North Carolina Democratic party:
“The modern-day Democratic party has become unrecognizable to me, and to so many others around this state and this country. The party wants to villainize anyone who has free thought, free judgment, has solutions, who wants to get to work to better our state. Not just sit in a meeting and have a workshop after a workshop, but really work with individuals to get things done. Because that’s what real public servants do. If you don’t do exactly what Democrats want you to do, they will try to bully you, they will try to cast you aside.”
Watch:
Cotham also said her Democratic colleagues in the House started “vicious rumors” about her mother in recent weeks, and that left-wing special interest groups allegedly were messaging her young son.
Predictably, not only are the Usual Suspects in the NC media already fretting over what this supposedly means for women’s rights …
But Democratic legislators are melting down as well, and telling some pretty tall tales along the way, like Democrat Rep. Chaz Beasley:
Except yeah, it is kinda “it,” and there are receipts to prove how often Cooper bullies Democrats who don’t fall in line:
Carolina Journal spelled it out in more detail:
Why would Roy Cooper primary such an impactful Democrat legislator like [now-former State. Sen.] Kirk deViere? The only clear answer to objective observers on the outside is that deViere put policy over politics and pragmatism over partisanship — something Cooper cannot have in his version of a “big tent.”
Cooper and the Democrats are no strangers to playing these sorts of games against moderate lawmakers who seek to engage in bipartisanship. Cooper allegedly made similar threats before on the state budget in 2019, which of course, he then acted on against deViere in 2022.
Cooper also strong-armed Democrats in the state legislature during his time as the state’s Attorney General, effectively keeping a compromise bill on the controversial HB2 “bathroom bill” from happening in the summer of 2016 because he wanted to continue to use it as a wedge issue in his election fight against then-Gov. Pat McCrory (R):
On Your Side Investigates has confirmed a group of up to ten House Democrats had originally signed on to support the bill. A number of people in that group changed their mind, though, after receiving calls from Cooper.
“We started losing Democrats,” the person involved in the negotiations said. “We were told Cooper was making personal phone calls to the ten Democratic members saying if they wanted to be on the team in November they needed to vote against the bill.”
Joel Ford, a former Democratic state senator, also weighed in when attacked over his previous and very public disagreements with the North Carolina Democratic party:
To reiterate a point I made Tuesday, Cotham’s House District is reliably blue, so her switching sides here may ultimately not serve her well in the next election. That’s something for those calling on her to resign or who are otherwise accusing her of “playing politics” to keep in mind as this all plays out.
That, and the fact that she is from a family of prominent Democrats.
“Tricia Cotham has voted in Dem primaries since at least 2005. She was married to the Chairman of the NC Democratic Party. Her mom is a Democrat county commissioner & DNC delegate. Her dad was chairman of the Mecklenburg Democrats. She was not secretly a Republican,” Carolina Journal’s Alex Baltzegar observed.
But even with all that in mind, shouldn’t she be able to identify as whoever she wants to be? Your rules, Democrats:
Simply put, the intolerance of the North Carolina Democratic party to dissenting views and their mindless obedience to wokeness is pushing people including state legislators away. And sadly (for NC Dems), there may be more switches coming.
House Speaker Tim Moore said during Cotham’s presser that “She’s not the only Democrat that we’ve had great conversations with,” with the insinuation clear that more bad news for North Carolina Dems could be right around the corner.
Couldn’t be happening to a more deserving bunch, bless their hearts.
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