Why did once-progressive state Rep. Tricia Cotham switch to Donald Trump’s Republican Party? Because she’s just like Trump: Politics is all about her.
That comes clear in an insightful article by Kate Kelly and David Perlmutt of The New York Times, “Inside the Party Switch That Blew Up North Carolina Politics.”
A friend in Charlotte told the Times Cotham “felt she did not get the gratitude or spotlight that she felt she deserved,” and “she was jealous that other Democrats were getting the adulation from the party.”
The story quoted her consultant of nearly a decade, Jonathan Coby, as saying she “seemed to have embraced a me-versus-them mentality.” He added, “She would say, ‘Oh, I don’t want to talk to that group, they’re out to get me; they don’t like me.’”
Cotham told Coby and her mother “she was put off that Democrats treated her as a newcomer when she returned to the House, inviting her to freshman orientation and offering her a mentor.”
“The things she was telling me then were like, ‘The Democrats don’t like me, the Republicans have helped me out a lot and been nice to me’,” Coby said.
And now?
“Overnight, Ms. Cotham became a heroine to Republicans and anti-abortion advocates across the country,” the Times said.
She got a standing ovation at the state Republican convention. She met privately with Ron DeSantis and Mike Pence.
“She’s a rock star among the Republican Party activists and voter base,” said U.S. Representative Dan Bishop, now a Republican candidate for state attorney general.
In 2016, Bishop sponsored North Carolina’s infamous “bathroom bill,” which was aimed at transgender people but mostly damaged the state’s economy.
Cotham fought the bill then.
Now, just like Trump, her personal feelings outweigh any political principles.
She’s where she belongs.
