Not just abortion: Cotham switch opens door to controversial GOP bills
North Carolina Rep. Tricia Cotham’s party switch last week from Democratic to Republican resonated nationally, even drawing a rebuke from President Joe Biden’s White House.
Why are Democrats so worried about the consequences her pivot will have? Abortion is a big factor. But it’s far from the only one.
The shift has the potential to also fundamentally change the state’s political landscape for education funding and school choice, voting rights, LGBTQ rights and policies on guns and immigration.
North Carolina is one of few Southeastern states that didn’t ban most or all abortions after Roe v. Wade was repealed last year. Republican legislative leaders have said the only reason they didn’t push further abortion restrictions was because they knew Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper would veto any such bill. Cotham’s move, however, gives the GOP a veto-proof supermajority in both chambers of the legislature.
Similar to the U.S. Senate, where Arizona Sen. Kyrsten Sinema’s change from Democratic to Independent in a previously tied chamber has given her outsize influence, Cotham’s role as the swing vote on veto overrides now gives her leverage in state politics.
Even her new boss, Republican House Speaker Tim Moore, seemed to acknowledge that during a press conference Wednesday, telling reporters: “There may be times Rep. Cotham may have to look at me and say, ‘Speaker, I don’t agree with your position.’ And you know what? That’ll be fine.”
Cotham’s former party hopes she uses that to protect some of the rights she promised voters she would fight for in her campaign just months ago.
“We urge her to continue to vote with the values she has espoused for many years, and stand up for the people of her district who elected her,” said Anderson Clayton, chair of the state Democratic Party.
“Reproductive freedoms are on the line,” Clayton said. “Our public schools are on the line. LGBTQ rights are on the line. Voting rights are on the line."
Cotham didn’t respond to a request for an interview for this article. During her press conference, reporters asked the former Democrat if she planned to pivot on controversial issues.
“What has really changed?” she responded. “I’m still going to stand strong on my convictions, but I’m not going to be pigeonholed into one particular issue.”
But Democrats fear they can’t take Cotham at her word, which they no longer trust, and are calling on her to resign. After Cotham’s announcement, her campaign website, which featured her stances on the issues, was no longer accessible.
Cotham and her family have a long history of Democratic Party loyalty. But she has shown no signs now of planning to resign in order to help the party that, she says, has driven her to join the GOP.
Cotham said she didn’t want to be “controlled” and claims Democrats wouldn’t let her be “an independent thinker.” She didn’t appreciate what she described as bullying from people on social media or from within her own party — claims Democrats dismissed.
Now, as the GOP advances controversial bills with a new supermajority under its belt, Cotham’s movements and statements may be scrutinized more than ever. Once an ardent supporter of reproductive rights, she’s already facing backlash for making what some see as concessions.
Here are some controversial topics that will test Cotham’s convictions.
Abortion-rights advocate
Cotham garnered national attention in 2015 for giving an impassioned speech on the House floor about the difficult decision to terminate her own pregnancy. Speaking in opposition to a proposed 72-hour waiting period, she accused the GOP of "wanting to play doctor," saying "my womb and my uterus is not up for your political grab."
And just a few months ago, she co-sponsored a bill to expand abortion access in North Carolina by codifying the protections of Roe v. Wade into state law. Roe had allowed abortions up until a fetus could be viable outside the womb — which varies from each pregnancy but is typically 24 to 26 weeks.
Now that Roe is no longer precedent, North Carolina law bans abortions after 20 weeks. Asked Wednesday if she’d support a bill to cut nearly two more months off that and pass a 13-week ban in North Carolina, Cotham declined to comment.
On Wednesday — the day she announced she was changing parties — Democrats proposed an amendment to the state budget to prevent millions of taxpayer dollars from being sent to religious, anti-abortion nonprofits.
Cotham voted it down along with every Republican.
Cotham and ‘constitutional carry’
Cotham was one of three Democrats who helped the GOP override Cooper’s veto of a bill to repeal the state’s pistol permit background check system. She and two other Democrats missed the vote, allowing Republicans to pass the bill into law over Cooper’s objection .
Rep. Robert Reives, the top House Democrat, issued a press release after that vote. “If voters want a different direction on gun safety,” he wrote, then they should vote in 2024 against all the lawmakers who allowed the pistol permits to be repealed.
One week later, Cotham was standing on stage at GOP headquarters with top Republican leaders, announcing her decision.
There’s one particularly sweeping GOP-backed gun bill still in the wings at the legislature. It would eliminate the state’s concealed carry permit rules.
Currently, people must pass a background check as well as a test of their marksmanship, and their gun safety knowledge, before being allowed to carry a concealed firearm. House Bill 189 would let anyone who’s not otherwise banned from having a gun to also carry it concealed in public — no proficiency tests or background checks required. It would also lower the concealed-carry age limit from 21 to 18.
Supporters call the idea “constitutional carry” and hope Cotham’s switch means it can now pass.
Andy Stevens, vice president of pro-gun group Grass Roots North Carolina, wrote on Twitter that if Cotham wants to continue her political career as a Republican in 2024 or beyond, she’ll need to get the support of groups like theirs.
“She won't get reelected without supporting constitutional carry,” Stevens wrote.
Other GOP-backed gun bills include proposals to let private-school employees and volunteers carry guns on campus, and to let people get lifelong concealed carry permits that never expire.
Cooperation with immigration authorities
Before Wednesday, Cotham had already shifted her position on immigration, specifically on whether local governments should be required to cooperate with federal immigration authorities.
In 2015, Cotham opposed a GOP effort to crack down on “sanctuary cities” — a term used to describe governments that try to protect immigrants from deportation.
The GOP-controlled legislature passed the “Protect North Carolina Workers Act,” a bill that barred city and county leaders from restricting local law enforcement's ability to cooperate with federal immigration officials. It also required state and local government agencies to use an electronic verification system to check the legal status of job applicants and contractors.
Cotham voted against that bill, which Republican Gov. Pat McCrory signed into law.
Less than two weeks ago, Cotham was one of only three Democrats who supported a bill to require sheriffs to cooperate with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Mecklenburg County Sheriff Garry McFadden fought the bill and said he tried repeatedly to contact Cotham about it, but she ignored him.
More immigration bills could still be coming, although not many have been filed yet. But at the least, Cotham’s support gives the GOP the votes needed to override Cooper’s veto of the ICE bill if and when it passes the full legislature.
Supporting school choice
One GOP stance Cotham has fully embraced is school choice. On Wednesday she expressed support for sending more taxpayer dollars to private schools to give students and parents more options.
“We have to evolve and I believe that the state is changing, especially after what [parents] saw firsthand in their home, with COVID and learning,” she said.“One-size-fits-all in education is wrong for children.
“It might be OK for adults, but I am about children,” she said.
That’s the same thing conservative groups advocating for school choice also say.
“There is no cookie cutter approach that’ll work for every student,” said Tyler Voigt, the deputy director for North Carolina’s chapter of Americans For Prosperity, a conservative libertarian group that has pushed hard for aggressive action this year on school choice.
North Carolina Republicans began a voucher system several years ago, which gives taxpayer-funded grants to qualifying families to pay for private school tuition. Opponents tried to have it ruled unconstitutional, arguing that the government shouldn’t be subsidizing religious institutions, but lost that lawsuit.
Now Republicans are seeking to expand the voucher program in multiple ways. Various bills at the legislature would grow the size and scope of the voucher program, or allow wealthier families to qualify. One bill would spend hundreds of millions of dollars per year paying people to homeschool their children.
Voigt said in an interview Thursday that AFP and other groups had already been talking with several Democratic lawmakers about those ideas. He suspects some school choice legislation could have passed regardless, but said Cotham’s comments Wednesday have particularly energized school choice advocates. As co-chair of the House Education Committee, Cotham is in a powerful role already to push for some of those changes.
Public school advocates say that school choice programs, like vouchers, are an attempt to dismantle and resegregate public schools, while sending taxpayer dollars to private schools, many of which are run by conservative Christian churches.
A bill filed Thursday to start paying homeschooling families out of the state budget would grow state spending on vouchers by nearly half a billion dollars per year.
It currently has a $95 million budget. But paying homeschooling families thousands of dollars per year, per child, would grow the voucher program to $572 million in 2025, the bill estimates.
Voigt said school choice isn’t about attacking public schools, or draining their funds, but rather about recognizing that different kids learn better in different systems and environments — and helping level the playing field.
“Rich kids are already afforded the opportunity,” Voigt said in an interview. “They’re already going to private schools. We want to have kids who aren’t rich to have that same opportunity.”
LGBTQ support to be tested
As a Democrat, Cotham was known for her support of the LGBTQ community. In 2014, she tweeted: “People ask me about political consequences for advocating for gay rights. I will say — aren't you afraid of the human consequences for not (advocating for gay rights)?”
The same day Cotham announced her party switch, Republicans filed six bills aimed at LGBTQ youth and adults — including proposals to require athletes to play based on their sex at birth. Cotham declined to comment on those and Democrats worry that she might be changing her tune.
Her decision to share the stage with U.S. Rep. Dan Bishop was especially concerning to Democrats. Bishop, when he was a state senator from Charlotte, was the lead sponsor of House Bill 2, known as the bathroom bill. The bill, which required people to use public bathrooms in accordance with their birth gender, was seen by opponents as discriminatory toward transgender people.
In 2016, Cotham voted against the bill even as 11 of her Democratic peers supported it. “We have working families who are now facing new GOP taxes on basic services but we are going to focus on bathrooms?” she tweeted that year.
Equality NC, a group that advocates for LGBTQ rights and endorsed Cotham’s campaign last year, is now calling on her to resign. The group issued an April 4 statement saying Cotham had betrayed the values that she affirmed were consistent with their own.
Pending education legislation could test Cotham’s support for the LGBTQ community. Senate Bill 49 would limit the discussion of gender and sexuality in elementary schools and push teachers to tell parents when a student of any age questions their sexuality.
Opponents say privacy elements of the bill could be dangerous for students whose households might not be accepting of a child questioning their sexuality. The Senate recently passed the bill along party lines, and the House is expected to take it up soon.
Opposing ‘attacks on our democracy’
With the 2024 elections approaching, Republicans are expected to push for numerous laws giving themselves an edge at the ballot box.
Democrats had hoped to hold the line on election laws. It’s unclear how Cotham might change that, although in the past the votes on such bills have almost always been purely along party lines. And she campaigned in 2022 as a staunch opponent of GOP-backed election laws.
Her campaign website highlighted her work in the past on sponsoring voting rights bills, adding: “I will continue to oppose attacks on our democracy, preserve fundamental voting rights, and ensure all voices are heard.”
Conservative lawmakers this session have filed bills to shorten the availability of both early voting and mail-in voting, and crack down on same-day voter registration. In recent elections those methods have tended to be more favored by Democrats than Republicans. Another bill filed again this year, after Cooper vetoed it previously, would ban counties from getting grants to help run elections.
‘It will be confusing’
Many North Carolinians will be watching to see if Cotham’s party change leads to change in her voting habits.
Until last week, the Cotham family story was known in part for its ties to the Democratic Party. Pat Cotham, Tricia’s mother, is now in her 11th year as a Mecklenburg commissioner. She has held numerous leadership positions in the party. Tricia Cotham’s great-grandmother was a Missouri delegate to the 1948 Democratic National Convention and a worker on former President Harry Truman’s campaign.
And Tricia Cotham herself represented the Charlotte area in the state House for almost 10 years as a Democrat before she lost a bid for a congressional seat in 2016. She easily defeated three other candidates in the Democratic primary last year and then cruised to victory on Election Night.
To hear Tricia Cotham tell it, it was the Democrats’ culture that pushed her into the arms of the GOP.
Upon returning to Raleigh, she found a different political landscape than the one she’d left six years ago. A Democrat occupied the Governor’s Mansion and the party needed every available vote to sustain his veto power.
Her vote would be crucial. And yet, she says her party did not make her feel at home.
“When I came to the legislature,” Cotham said at her press conference, “some warned me about the toxicity and the nastiness — [that] was the word used repeatedly.”
When Speaker Moore appointed her as a co-chair of the House K-12 Education Committee, she said Democrats reacted to the news with more suspicion than praise.
“Instead of that being seen as any rational individual would see, that this could be good, I was shunned," Cotham said. "I was called a traitor.”
Cotham's mother, the Mecklenburg County commissioner, advised her daughter to pray about the situation. And, if she decided to switch, to “remember it will be confusing, so it was important [for her] to tell her story.”
“I knew she was in an intolerable situation with the Democrats,” Pat Cotham told WRAL News.
Asked whether her daughter's experience would prompt her to change parties, Pat Cotham said: “The Democratic Party has changed from years ago.” But, she added, she won’t change parties.
