The race against NC’s Tricia Cotham just heated up with new mailers | Opinion
The opening salvo has been fired in one of North Carolina’s most closely watched legislative races.
A mailer circulating in House District 105, where N.C. Rep. Tricia Cotham is running for reelection, slams Cotham for “betraying” constituents when she changed her party affiliation last year.
The front of the mailer shows an illustration of Cotham next to the words “Tricia Cotham broke her promises to our community.” The other side of the mailer says “Tricia Cotham lied to us in exchange for insider deals and political power” and “She showed us who she really is: a lying politician who will do anything for power.”
“Instead of keeping her promises, she traded away progress on the issues that matter for political power, campaign cash, and a gerrymandered district to run in,” the mailer says.
The mailer references Cotham’s support for abortion restrictions and her introduction of universal school voucher legislation. It also says she “eliminated background checks on handguns” — referring to the repeal of the state’s pistol permit law — although Cotham was absent for that vote and said afterward that she did not support it. Cotham did not respond to a request for comment about the mailer.
The mailer is paid for by Majority Rising North Carolina, a 501(c)(4) organization founded in 2022. The group, which focuses primarily on the state legislature, advocates for “prosperity and opportunity for all North Carolinians,” according to its website. The group held a summit in Charlotte earlier this year which featured appearances from Gov. Roy Cooper, Democratic legislative leaders and N.C. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Kody Kinsley.
A second mailer, paid for by the same group, ties Cotham to the Republican Party’s “extreme agenda” with an illustration of Cotham wearing a hat that says “Mark Robinson for Governor.”
“North Carolinians still don’t know where Rep. Cotham stands on a number of issues, and we are shedding light on her new far-right policy stances that include defunding public education and allowing guns on school campuses,” Ian Shannon, the group’s executive director, told me in a statement.
Cotham’s decision to abruptly switch parties last year — a decision that ultimately allowed Republicans to pass a 12-week abortion ban and radically expand school vouchers — incensed Democrats inside and outside of her district. She was elected to the legislature in House District 112, a solidly Democratic district that almost certainly would not have elected her again. Now, Cotham is running in House District 105, which encompasses Cotham’s home of Mint Hill and parts of Matthews. The district was redrawn in the most recent round of redistricting to favor Republicans by a 52% to 45% margin, but it isn’t completely out of reach for Democrats, especially if they can effectively harness voters’ frustration with Cotham.
Cotham, who also served in the legislature between 2007 and 2017, ran as a Democrat in the 2022 midterms on a platform that emphasized progressive views, including a vow to protect abortion rights and codify Roe v. Wade. However, she ultimately voted to further restrict abortion in North Carolina, and also voted for bills that would harm transgender youth despite promising to be a “champion of LGBTQ+ rights” if elected.
The race between Cotham and Democrat Nicole Sidman, who won a crowded Democratic primary earlier this year, is one of the most high-profile legislative races in the state — not only because of Cotham’s switch, but also because it could determine whether Republicans maintain a supermajority in the legislature after November’s election. Until now, however, the race has been relatively quiet. But Sidman has vastly outpaced Cotham in fundraising. Between February and June, Sidman raised more than $260,000, compared to Cotham’s $55,000, according to second quarter fundraising reports filed with the North Carolina State Board of Elections.
It’s obvious that Democratic-leaning voters are unhappy with Cotham. Proof of that came in March’s primary, when Democratic voters ousted Cotham’s mother, longtime Mecklenburg County commissioner Pat Cotham, after more than a decade on the board. And there’s no question, either, that the Democratic Party and its allies are motivated to defeat Cotham as well. Cotham’s race is one of several state legislative races that national Democrats have chosen as “spotlight” races in North Carolina.
What’s less obvious is the strength of Republican-leaning voters’ support for Cotham. This will be Cotham’s first appearance on the ballot as a Republican, as she had no opponent in the primary. And in this Republican-leaning district, Democrats need to mobilize more moderate and conservative voters if they want to win. Perhaps that’s why the mailer makes no mention of the words “Democrat” or “Republican,” instead framing Cotham’s “betrayal” as a reason why voters in the district shouldn’t trust her to represent them. With less than three months to go until Election Day, Democrats can’t afford for this race to be quiet much longer.
