Cooper: Ex-Democrat Cotham 'can still stop bad legislation'
North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper weighed in Monday on the ramifications of apparently losing his veto power at the state legislature, urging party-switching former Democratic state Rep. Tricia Cotham to stick up for the values she campaigned on before she became a Republican last week.
“If she keeps her word on the issues, her votes and the positions she takes in Republican Caucus can still stop bad legislation that hurts people she promised to help, regardless of her party,” Cooper said in a series of posts on Twitter.
Cotham shocked many in state politics Wednesday, when she said she was leaving the Democratic Party to become a Republican, handing the GOP a veto-proof supermajority at the legislature.
Cotham publicly blamed Cooper and other Democratic leaders for her change of party, saying they pressured her to always vote the party line and then bullied her when she didn’t.
"If you don't do exactly what the Democrats want you to do, they will try to bully you and will try to cast you aside,” Cotham said during her announcement Wednesday.
Cooper seemed to reference her claims in a series of tweets Monday, urging Cotham to take her same attitude to the Republican Party.
“She has talked about her need for ‘freedom of thought’ and standing up to her old party,” Cooper wrote. “The question is can she also stand up to her new one, especially when they push an agenda she has fought against for years?”
He wrote that she should, and can, do exactly that.
Cotham didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment for this article on Monday. Her switch to the Republican party was official as of Monday, according to state election records.
