A donor got a refund from party switcher Tricia Cotham. Can you? We asked | Opinion

The New York Times wrote Sunday about the genesis of Tricia Cotham’s betrayal of North Carolina Democrats, which occurred when she abruptly decided to change her party affiliation earlier this year. There was a little information that felt new — Republicans urged her to run for her safely blue district — and a lot that everyone knew, including her early estrangement from her Democratic colleagues.

But one sentence in particular caught our eye. A donor to Cotham’s campaign requested her money back, the Times reported, and Cotham obliged. Is that true for any donor who feels like Cotham pulled a literal bait-and-switch?

We asked.

Savannah Russell, who is listed as Cotham’s campaign treasurer with the North Carolina State Board of Elections, said it is at the discretion of the candidate to decide whether to honor requests for refunds.

Russell said that the refunds referred to in the Times article were issued by Cotham’s previous treasurer, who resigned shortly after the party switch occurred. Russell has not received any requests for refunds since taking over as treasurer, she said.

We asked whether Cotham intends to honor requests to refund campaign contributions going forward.

“At this point I haven’t discussed that possibility with Rep. Cotham,” Russell said in an email.

Cotham did not respond to a message asking a similar question.

One thing is clear: Cotham’s betrayal still feels raw to many North Carolinians. We can glean from the Times article that Cotham still seems to blame Democrats for treating her poorly, and she still insists the same person she’s always been. Neither of those statements feel true, nor do they soften the blow of her decision.

She may be the same person, but she sure isn’t the same legislator — or at least not the one she promised to be. She vowed to fight to codify Roe v. Wade if elected, then voted for a bill that bans most abortions after 12 weeks of pregnancy. She described herself as a “champion” of LGBTQ+ rights and promised to “stand strong against discriminatory legislation,” then promptly did the opposite — voting for bills that limit the instruction of LGBTQ+ topics in schools and prohibit transgender students from participating in school sports consistent with their gender identity.

Cotham’s allegations of mistreatment by her Democratic colleagues have been extensively fact-checked, and the verdict was that they were mostly false. But even if they were true, would it be reason enough to abandon the values she claimed to espouse, and betray the voters who elected her? No. The way Cotham tells it, switching parties sounds more like a decision made out of spite than a genuine change of heart. We hope that’s not true — it’s awfully fickle.

Cotham has taken a lot of heat for her decision, some of which is warranted. The threats and vitriol she has received, however, are not excusable under any circumstance. But voters have a right to be angry, especially considering the monumental impact of Cotham’s actions.

Refunding campaign contributions is probably the least Cotham can do to offer recourse, and it’s likely also the closest she’ll come to taking accountability. But it won’t change much. Those who once supported Cotham may be able to recover their money, but they’ll never be able to recover the votes they feel they cast under false pretenses.

This story was originally published August 1, 2023 at 11:28 AM.