Mecklenburg Democrats want campaign donations back after Rep. Tricia Cotham’s party switch

Their voices rang over the hum of those eating lunch in east Charlotte.

“Resign, resign, resign!” Mecklenburg County Democrats chanted, gathered together Wednesday afternoon at a shopping center off East WT Harris Boulevard.

They called for the resignation of NC Rep. Tricia Cotham, an eastern Mecklenburg County Democrat who will flip to the Republican Party and give it a supermajority in the House. And the Mecklenburg County Democratic Party’s chair encouraged those who donated to Cotham’s campaign to ask for a refund.

“Let’s contact Tricia Cotham to get our money back. You won’t be able to get your time back, but you can get your money back,” Chair Jane Whitley said at the Tuesday news conference. “Ask for her to refund your contributions.”

Since the donations have already been accepted, Cotham would have to report the refund as an expenditure in her campaign finance reports with the elections office if she returned the money.

“She can absolutely give their money back,” Kristin Mavromatis with the Mecklenburg County Board of Elections said. “But there’s nothing that would require her to do so.”

Some of the prominent Democrats and groups who contributed to Cotham en route to her 2022 victory include U.S. Rep. Jeff Jackson’s old campaign for N.C. Senate and the Democratic Women of Mecklenburg County. Cotham won a four-candidate primary and won with 59% of the vote in the general election.

Calls for Cotham’s resignation have also continued to flow in. Mecklenburg Democrats say they feel betrayed.

“I’m very troubled that we’re handing a supermajority to the Republicans through deceit,” Commissioner Susan Rodriguez-McDowell said at the Mecklenburg County dais Tuesday night. “I’m sickened by it.”

Whitley said she found out from social media. Democratic Women of Mecklenburg County President DonnaMarie Woodson said Cotham didn’t tell her or her colleagues ahead of her switch.

“She needs to come to us, the Democratic Women of Mecklenburg County, and give us an explanation. She owes that to the Democratic Women of Mecklenburg County who have supported her,” Woodson said. “She didn’t have the guts to even talk to us?”

The wrong thing for Democrats was the right thing to Mecklenburg County Republicans.

“Representative Cotham has been doing the right thing by her family, her students,her constituents and North Carolinians throughout her career,” Mecklenburg GOP Chair David Merrill said in an email. “She deserves our respect and the benefit of the doubt that she will continue this meritorious service for years to come.”

Endorsement regrets

Democrats fear the change puts Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper’s veto power in jeopardy for controversial votes such as an abortion ban or new restriction.

Democrat Ann Newman said she’s seen Cotham’s views begin to slowly lean further right.

“Cotham deceived the good Democrats in her district,” Newman said. “She must resign her seat and allow us to move on and replace her with someone who represents our democratic values.”

The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Black Political Caucus, which endorsed Cotham in 2022, issued a statement saying “Cotham has betrayed the trust we placed in her.”

“Our endorsement of Rep. Cotham was a reflection of our belief in her ability to not only represent but also uplift the Black community,” the statement says. “Regrettably, her shift in values appears to align her more closely with a political faction with a troubling history of policies and rhetoric aimed at suppressing the voices of marginalized groups, including African Americans and women.”

The Charlotte-Mecklenburg NAACP has also called for her resignation.

‘I don’t trust her

A different group of several dozen voters gathered at the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Government Center to call for Cotham’s resignation Wednesday evening, too.

Local activist Ray Shawn McKinnon pointed out the significance of April 5 being Holy Wednesday, a Christian holiday that commemorates Judas betraying Jesus.

“We don’t know why Tricia Ann Cotham betrayed the voters of District 112. We don’t know what she got from it,” McKinnon said. “When Jesus was betrayed by Judas, it wasn’t over and it isn’t now. Tricia Cotham might believe that she can say the things that she said without accountability, but we’re here to tell her she cannot.”

Gaston County Democrat Minerva Hardy said she heard the news of Cotham’s flip when she turned the news on a 5 a.m. Wednesday. She immediately called her friend Pam Morgenstern and they made their way to Charlotte later in the day to attend the rally.

Both are worried about a Republican supermajority resulting in the loss of reproductive rights.

“When you’re voting, you trust a candidate,” Hardy said. “She is not a true Democrat and now I don’t trust her. I’m more concerned about the future if we allow this now.”