Putting Tricia Cotham's Party Switch in Context

By Christoper Cooper and Michael Bitzer

Donald Trump's indictment might have received the most political attention last week and Democrats won a critical state supreme court race in Wisconsin, but the most politically consequential event in the United States might have taken place eight hours away from the eye of the Trump storm. On April 5, 2023, Tricia Cotham, a Democratic lawmaker in North Carolina's State House, announced that she was switching political parties. Elected as a Democrat, Cotham is now a Republican.

Cotham's move essentially rendered Governor Cooper's veto ineffective. The Republicans now have supermajority control of both chambers of the North Carolina General Assembly and can override Cooper's veto without securing a single Democratic vote. 

The news about Cotham raised all sorts of questions about party switching in general, and how it potentially fits into a seismic shift in North Carolina politics.

Where Things Stand in the NC General Assembly

Blog contributor and Western Carolina University Professor Dr. Chris Cooper discusses the latest in what is happening at the North Carolina General Assembly with the Carolina Journal. 

You can find his interview at: https://www.carolinajournal.com/video/western-carolinas-chris-cooper-offers-2023-n-c-legislative-session-progress-report/ 

Getting What We Pay For

By Chris Cooper

I am pleased that The Assembly, a new "digital magazine about the people, institutions, and ideas" that shape North Carolina recently published my piece, "Getting What We Pay For." In it, I make the case that we should give more resources (salary, staff, session length) to members of our General Assembly. I thought readers of this blog might be interested in the piece, and in what the folks at The Assembly are doing.

Some thoughts on what to look for in NC's Election evening for the NC General Assembly contests

After 2016, I thought it best to stick to "explaining" why elections and their results happened, rather than "predicting" beforehand what could happen on Election evening. But as I'm teaching a course on Congress this semester, and we just wrapped up the section on mid-term elections, I thought it might be fun to post some thoughts on elections and what political scientists call the "fundamentals" when it comes to campaigns & elections, especially at the state level for 2018.

As many North Carolinians will be focused on the state's 13 congressional districts, it will be important to watch the state's General Assembly contests for both the state house and state senate in the Old North State. All eyes are on the question: can Democrats reduce the Republicans' seats in the state senate (GOP controls 35 seats) and the state house (GOP controls 75 seats) to below 'supermajority' status (3/5's of the 50 senate seats and 120 of the house seats) and thus break the power of the legislature to override Democratic Governor Roy Cooper's veto? If so, that would pose an interesting divided government scenario for the state for the next two years.