PSYCH! This Democratic Lawmaker Is a Republican Now

Worst April Fool’s joke ever. And I thought this ultraviolet lube was bad.

North Carolina House Rep. Tricia Cotham has had a sudden change of heart! Like Saint Paul on the road to Damascus! You know, when Jesus appeared to him and told him to forgo his wicked ways? Except in this case, Saint Paul may as well have put on a MAGA hat and started firing an assault rifle into the air screaming “OWN THE LIBS”.

See, when Tricia Cotham was campaigning in her district in North Carolina, she was doing so as a progressive Democrat. HOWEVER, soon after she took office—which just happened a few short months ago in January—she declared that she is now a Republican, effectively defrauding all of the people who voted for her in order to put a Democrat in office.

Now listen, this isn’t the first time that someone has pulled the ol’ political switcharoo. In 2018, four Republican lawmakers in Kansas left the GOP and joined the Democrats. However, they did so only after having held office as Republicans for an extended period of time. Many of them cited dissatisfaction with the direction that the party was headed and left in order to better serve their constituents. If anything, they had served their time with the Republican party before coming to terms with their ethical objections. Tricia Cotham did no such thing. She ran as a Democrat on a progressive platform, meaning that she was more left-leaning than most. A left-leaning Democrat suddenly becoming a Republican is a mind-boggling feat of ideological gymnastics, so mind-boggling that it’s likely it was her intent all along.

In a recent interview, Cotham said that she is still the “same person” that she always was. NO SHIT SHERLOCK, YOU WERE A REPUBLICAN ALL ALONG. However, she claims that “Democratic bullying” caused her to flip sides. Her flipflop comes at a convenient time for North Carolina Republicans. With the addition of Cotham, the Republican party now holds a supermajority in the North Carolina legislative branch, allowing them to veto any actions made by Democratic Governor Roy Cooper.

Democratic Chair Anderson Clayton was quick to condemn Cotham, calling her actions “deceit of the highest order.” She went on to call the act a “betrayal to the people of Mecklenburg County with repercussions not only for the people of her district but for the entire state of North Carolina.”

North Carolina does not have any recall laws in place, but Cotham is currently facing calls to resign from her constituents, who are outraged at her behavior. Equality North Carolina, the state’s oldest LGBTQ rights organization has also called for her resignation on Twitter, citing her “yes” vote to an anti-protest bill and an ICE collaboration bill as evidence that she does not have her constituents’ best interests at heart. In hindsight, North Carolina voters should have just written “Judas” on the ballot. At least they would know what they’d be getting themselves into.

(featured image: screencap)