Tricia Cotham then and now

About two weeks before her Democratic primary last spring, Rep. Tricia Cotham declared her unequivocal support for abortion rights. 

“Now, more than ever we need leaders who will be unwavering and unapologetic in their support of abortion rights,” she wrote on Twitter on May 3, 2022. 

At a news conference last week where Cotham announced she was changing her party affiliation to Republican, she wavered. 

She would not commit to any position, or say whether she had changed her mind since joining the legislature this year. 

Cotham’s party switch gives Republicans 72 members in the state House and enough votes in the legislature to override Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper’s vetoes if GOP lawmakers all stick together. 

Legislative leaders have promised to pass more abortion restrictions this year, and Republicans are talking privately about what new limits they should propose. 

As recently as February, when she was still a Democrat, Cotham co-sponsored a bill with other Democrats in the legislature to codify the 1973 Supreme Court decision establishing the Constitutional right to abortion.

In 2015, as she opposed extending the waiting period for abortions from 24 to 72 hours, she talked about her own abortion for a nonviable pregnancy in a floor speech that drew national attention. 

Leading House Republicans who welcomed Cotham to their party insisted she didn’t have to contort her positions to fit in with the majority. 

“Her principles and views have not changed,” said Rep. Destin Hall, chairman of the House Rules Committee. 

But rather than repeat her previous support for abortion rights, Cothan indicated she needed time to think.

“I am going to do what I believe is right and follow my conscience,” she said last week. “I’m going to listen. I’m going to look inside and I’m going to pray on this issue. And I know that that’s where I’ll find the answer, as I do on everything.”

Reached by text during the General Assembly’s spring break this week, Cotham wrote that she was resting Wednesday and hoped to rest Thursday. She did not respond to a follow-up text. 

The website for Lillian’s List features photos of 36 Democratic women who won their legislative races last year and whom the organization supported. Cotham is not among them.

Lillian’s List Executive Director Sarah Preston said in an interview this week that the organization had recruited and backed another candidate.

“Tricia made the decision not to tell anyone she was running,” Preston said.

Lillian’s List helps progressive women who support abortion rights run for office.

In announcing her party switch, Cotham said she was being pressured to adhere to Democratic Party orthodoxy.

“Gosh, if she thinks the Democrats were hard on her for her votes, I  hate to think how Republicans would react if she votes to support reproductive rights,” Preston said.

“She claimed last week that she was independent minded,” Preston said. “I hope she would continue to support abortion and reproductive freedom.”

LGBTQ rights

Cotham was recognized as a leading Democrat on the issues of K-12 public education and LGBTQ rights when she first served in the House from 2007 to 2016. 

Cotham sponsored a bill in 2016 to repeal a law known as HB2, which required people use public restrooms and locker rooms based on the gender on their birth certificates rather than their gender identity. 

U.S. Rep. Dan Bishop, the Mecklenburg Republican known for championing HB2 as a state Senator, was part of the GOP’s public welcoming party for Cotham last week.  

Bishop said he and Cotham are friends, though they sometimes disagree on issues. 

Cotham may soon be faced with decisions on limits to LGBTQ rights. Last week, legislators filed bills that would restrict transgender student participation on sports teams and limit or ban gender-affirming medical care for minors. 

Public education

One issue about which Cotham appears to have changed her mind is K-12 education.

“On issues like school choice, like charters, we have to evolve,” she said last week. 

During her earlier terms in office, Cotham frequently referred to her time as public school teacher and administrator during floor debates as she built her credentials as a K-12 expert and champion. According to an Equality NC release announcing Cotham was receiving its 2013 Legislative Leadership award, the NC Association of Educators had named her an “A+ legislator.” In a video she shot for the group in her second term, she identified herself as an NCAE member. 

On Wednesday, she blasted a Texas public school support group on Twitter for an ad attacking a school choice advocates. Her Twitter profile includes a link to a Republican Party fundraising platform. 

This session, Cotham signed on as co-sponsor to a bill that would weaken State Board of Education oversight of charter schools. It has no Democratic sponsors. As part of the proposal, counties would be allowed to give charters money for property purchases and building renovations. 

As she was preparing to leave the legislature in 2016, Cotham was one of five Democrats to vote for a bill that would allow a charter school management company to take over low-performing schools to create an “achievement school district.” 

Fellow Mecklenburg County House member Rob Bryan, a Republican, pushed the legislation. Wealthy Oregon resident and charter school backer John D. Bryan (no relation to Rob) bragged later about the “significant economic resources” he committed to getting the law passed. 

As envisioned, the achievement school district was to have five schools run by charter operators. 

Southside-Ashpole Elementary in Robeson County was the only school that ended up in what was later called the Innovation School District before the experiment fell apart.  

In 2019, Cotham became president of Achievement for All Children, the nonprofit organization running Southside-Ashpole. 

In 2020, NC Newsline obtained a confidential letter prepared for state Board of Education members recommending that the state cancel its contract with Achievement for All Children. The letter cited more than a half-dozen reports the organization had not filed on time as required by its contract, including its proposed budget and annual audit. 

The Sept. 5, 2020, letter said AAC had failed to address problems flagged the previous February, which included a lack of progress in adopting and implementing rigorous academic and instructional programs, and a refusal to provide regular and required status updates and reports, NC Newsline reported. 

In June 2021, the state Board of Education announced it had ended its contract with Achievement for All Children and would pay about $4,000 to settle “the legal dispute over the termination of the group’s management of Southside-Ashpole Elementary School,” NC Newsline reported. 

The school failed to make the academic gains boosters promised while it was in the ISD.

The General Assembly returns from its break next week. Cotham will have a seat in front of one of its biggest committee rooms when the House K-12 Education Committee that she co-chairs meets Tuesday.

NC Newsline education reporter Greg Childress contributed to this report.