Second Democrat joins race to challenge Tricia Cotham in Charlotte-area district
A new candidate has jumped into North Carolina’s 2024 Democratic primary election to represent a new GOP-leaning Charlotte-area district and face off against Republican Rep. Tricia Cotham.
The latest Democrat to announce a campaign is Nicole Sidman, an attorney and first-time candidate who has been involved in outreach at Charlotte’s Temple Beth El and worked as campaign manager in 2018 for former state Rep. Christy Clark.
Sidman, who filed paperwork on Thursday with the state’s board of elections, faces Democrat Yolanda Holmes in the primary election to represent House District 105, a slightly GOP-leaning Charlotte-area district drawn during this year’s redistricting. The winner will then run against the GOP nominee in November; so far, Cotham is the only Republican candidate.
“When I saw that I had been drawn into this particular district, it was something that I was really interested in doing,” Sidman said in an interview with The News & Observer.
“I talked to my family and friends about what that would look like for us and just decided to throw my hat in the arena,” she said, “after the last however many years watching the GOP just strip away citizens’ rights, watching women lose their right to bodily autonomy and the sort of attack on LGBTQ rights and education.”
Tight race possible in new district for Cotham
This particular district will likely be one of the state’s most contested, as it is not a guaranteed win for either party: Many other districts lean much more sharply either to Democrats or Republicans.
The North Carolina General Assembly is currently controlled by Republicans, who hold a veto-proof supermajority in both legislative chambers. The Senate gained this power during the 2022 elections, when Republicans reached the required 60% threshold of seats held. Meanwhile, the GOP fell short in the House by just one seat.
This changed when in April, Cotham, a longtime Democrat, flipped her affiliation and joined the GOP. In November, Cotham announced she would run in the newly drawn HD 105. She previously represented House District 112, a largely Democratic district on the outskirts of Charlotte that at the time encompassed Mint Hill, Grove Park, and other communities.
Asked how she planned to campaign against Cotham, should she win the primary, Sidman said: “I’ve never met Tricia,” but that, “I know the betrayal on people’s faces, who voted for her, people who had counted on being able to sustain the governor’s veto.”
“I’m a person that will do what I say I will do, and you won’t see me changing my convictions for personal power, and I will lead the way I tell voters I will lead,” Sidman said.
When she switched parties, Cotham said it was due to a lack of tolerance by Democrats of dissenting viewpoints and an increased hostility from within the party.
Cotham received backlash from Democrats and praise from Republicans for her decision. State GOP Chairman Michael Whatley said in April that the party was thrilled to have Cotham join Republicans to “advance solutions for North Carolina families.”
Since joining the GOP, Cotham has sponsored a school-choice measure that passed into law that allows the state to offer taxpayer-funded, universal scholarships, or vouchers, to attend private schools. She has also voted in favor of a new 12-week limit on most abortions and other Republican priorities.
Before Cotham, Sidman will need to face Holmes, who ran in 2022 to represent HD 112. Holmes lost but came second out of four candidates, with Cotham winning the primary with 48% of votes to Holmes’ 31%.
Views on marijuana, abortions and more
“What I really stand for is just being someone that will do what I say I’m going to do and support their rights to live their lives in a way that feels not constrained” by extremism, Sidman said.
Sidman said she was in favor of expanding abortion access to what it was before Senate Bill 20, the GOP bill that passed into law this year that prohibits abortions after 12 weeks, but would “have to see what any particular bill” says.
On medical marijuana legalization, which was on the table this year but failed to pass into law, she said “I’d have to look a lot closer into that issue, to be honest.”
“It again goes back to what should the government be telling people they can do and what should doctors be telling people they can do. And who can we trust to really make those decisions?”
Sidman grew up in Winston-Salem and serves as the director of congregational life at Temple Beth El, a center for Jewish religious, cultural and educational development in Charlotte, according to its website.
She has a law degree and a bachelor of arts in history from the University of Michigan. She moved to North Carolina in 2017 from New York, where she served as a volunteer attorney for the New York Civil Liberties Union and helped found the social justice committee at her previous synagogue in New York, according to Temple Beth El’s website.
She said after working as a lawyer in the corporate world she also went on to volunteer and teach high school for over a year as well as serve for a stint as a parent teacher association president.
This story was originally published December 14, 2023 at 2:40 PM.
