Blasting the North Carolina Democratic Party for “bullying,” one member has switched parties, joining the Republican contingent in the state legislature and giving the GOP a supermajority there.
Originally published by WND News Service. Used with permission.
A report from Fox affiliate WGHP-TV explained it is Rep. Tricia Cotham who switched from the Democrat to the Republican Party.
Her former associates, she explained, have left the party she used to know “unrecognizable.”
With its supermajority now, the GOP can veto any legislation coming out of the governor’s office that it would want to.
The “modern-day Democratic party has become unrecognizable to me and others across the state,” she said.
“If you don’t do exactly what the Democrats want you to do, they will try to bully you. They will try to cast you aside.”
She also objected to the top-down demands from Democrats.
“I will not be controlled by anyone,” she said.
The representative said Democrats have been “blasting me on Twitter to calling me names, coming after my family, coming after my children. That is wrong.”
She explained her tipping point when she was bashed, by Democrats, for using the American flag and praying hands emoji on social media.
The state Senate already has a supermajority of Republicans.
Anderson Clayton, the Democrat party’s chair in the state, claimed Cothan should resign.
The New York Post said Cotham explained the Democrat party no longer was “inclusive” nor “tolerant.”
“What happened to the concept of a big tent party? What happened to these ideas that we’re inclusive, we’re tolerant, we’re so welcoming to everybody? No, you’re not.”
She continued, “The party wants to villainize anyone who has free thought, free judgment, has solutions and wants to get to work to better our state. Not just sit in a meeting and have a workshop after a workshop, but really work with individuals to get things done. Because that is what real public servants do.”
Just the News reported the decision may have been triggered by bashing Cotham took from Democrats after she missed a vote last week in which the House overrode the governor’s veto of a Republican bill that eased gun regulations in the state.