A North Carolina Democrat announced on Wednesday that she is switching parties, giving Republicans a veto-proof majority in the state House. “The modern-day Democratic Party has become unrecognizable to me,” State Rep. Tricia Cotham said at a press conference flanked by Republican Party colleagues who she said had welcomed her “with open arms.” Cotham was elected as a Dem last fall, winning her Charlotte-area blue district by nearly 20 points. Republicans already held a supermajority in the state Senate, but Cotham’s swap gives them 72 House seats—enough to achieve a supermajority in that chamber as well. Now, Republicans will be able to override any veto from Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper. U.S. Rep. Jeff Jackson, a former state senator, called it a “political earthquake” that “will have major consequences for millions of people.” Some of Cotham’s former Democratic colleagues demanded she resign. “[She] campaigned as a Democrat and supporter of abortion rights, health care, public education, gun safety, and civil rights,” Democratic State Rep. Robert Reives said in a statement. “Now, just a few months later, Rep. Cotham is changing parties. That is not the person that was presented to the voters of House District 112.”
