Freshman North Carolina state House member Tricia Cotham on Wednesday officially switched parties from Democrat to Republican, handing the state GOP a veto-proof supermajority to push through all sorts of right wing policies on abortion, guns, and voting, WRAL reports.
Cotham represents a deep-blue Charlotte-area district and as such would appear to be fucked when she faces voters again in the 2024 election – unless she moves or is gerrymandered into a safer red district (entirely possible). So it’s not hard to imagine that she was somehow bought off to help solidify Republican control for the rest of the term as they try to retake the governor’s mansion as incumbent Dem Governor Roy Cooper is term-limited and cannot run again in 2024.