A formerly Democratic member of the North Carolina Congress announced on Wednesday that she is leaving the Democratic Party and joining the GOP house contingent, giving the Republican Party a veto-proof supermajority in the state.
That lawmaker is State Rep. Tricia Cotham, who represents a district near Charlotte. She announced her switch to the GOP in a press conference with Republican leaders from the state House and Senate, saying in the press conference that the “modern-day Democratic Party has become unrecognizable to me and others across the state.”
Continuing, she said that she is leaving the Democrats and that “[she] will not be controlled by anyone.”
And what was the incident that made her throw in the towel on being a Democrat? She posted the American flag and praying hands emoji on Twitter and was then attacked by members of her party for it. She said that Democrats were doing everything from “blasting me on Twitter to calling me names, coming after my family, coming after my children.”
Continuing, she said, “That is wrong,” before adding that a woman started hurling obscenities at her while she tried to shop in a store with her son.
Predictably, the Democrats were quite upset with that. House Minority Leader Robert Reives argued that Cotham should have resigned instead of switching parties because she ran as a Democrat in a Democratic district. Continuing, he added, “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. Those constituents deserved to know what values were most important to their elected representative.”
In contrast, state GOP chair Michael Whatley said, “This announcement continues to reflect that the Democratic Party is too radical for North Carolina. The values of the Republican Party align with voters, and the people of Mecklenburg County should be proud to have her representation in Raleigh.”
Cotham’s departure from the Democrats is similar to Tulsi Gabbard’s departure. Tulsi left because the party was growing increasingly radical, saying that its attacks on faith drove her away. Watch that here:
I spoke w/ @TulsiGabbard on @IngrahamAngle about the erosion of America's spiritual foundation
While the 1st Amendment protects against establishment of religion, the words "separation of church & state" are not in our founding docs, a "religion of secularism" was not intended pic.twitter.com/Yr2K3KyySR
— Kayleigh McEnany (@kayleighmcenany) March 19, 2023
As you can hear in the clip, McEnany said, “It’s ironic to me that God, someone you can trust, is being run out of society. [And] we know he was an integral part of our founding, mentioned in many of our founding documents.” McEnany then added that the separation of church and state is “found nowhere in our founding documents,” and has “been utilized to create a religion of secularism.”
McEnany then asked Gabbard if she thought that “erasing, broadly, God out of society in a way perhaps our founders never intended” was damaging society. Gabbard, in response, said, “there’s no question about it.” She then went on to say that the Democrats are trying to erase God, saying “This erosion of this spiritual foundation of our country is a direct consequence of those who are trying to erase God from just about every facet of our public lives.”
Adding to that, she named the Democratic Party’s hatred of God as one of the main reasons she left it, telling McEnany “This is one of the main reasons why I chose to leave the Democratic Party: because I saw increasingly how not only were they trying to erase any mention of God, [but were] attacking people of faith, attacking people of spirituality, especially Christians.”
She then argued that the left’s attacks on religion have led much of the country in a direction that is causing damage “to families, to children, to our communities, [and] to our policymakers — many of whom think that they are God and are trying to control us in every possible way.”
Featured image credit: By NC General Assembly – https://www.ncleg.gov/Members/Biography/H/817, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=130151290
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