Tricia Cotham's Rap Sheet Earns Her a Republican Primary

Tricia Cotham with Dan Bishop, announcing
her party switch

She defected to the enemy in April 2023. By switching parties, she betrayed the Democratic majority that had elected her as a Democrat in her "Safe Democrat" NC House Dist. 112. She quickly became the most unpopular former Democrat in the state: 

EqualityNC: "Tricia Cotham sought ENC's endorsement in 2022 affirming that she held values consistent with our own. Since then, she has betrayed those values, voting against equality by supporting legislation that targets the rights of marginalized communities." The NC League of Conservation Voters said in a statement that Cotham's party switch was "an act of betrayal." CarolinaForward tweeted: "No matter how your morning is going, just remember that you -- unlike @triciacotham -- didn't wake up the most hated and distrusted person in #ncpol." EQV Analytics tweeted: "Big payday, I guess. In just 5 months NC-112's @triciacotham went from opposing 'attacks on our democracy,' 'inequitable funding of public schools,' 'Republican attacks on our health care' & 'Republican attacks on LGBTQ+ youth' to being a Dan Bishop GOPer. Wow."

There had been indications that she had hatched a deal with Republican Speaker Tim Moore, perhaps even before the election, that she would defect the minute Moore needed her to override a Cooper veto. For his "honor escort" to the Speaker's chair when the House reconvened in January of 2023, there was Tricia Cotham, the only Democrat chosen to be at Moore's elbow. A full ten days before making her party-switch official, she cleaned out her desk on the Democratic side and moved her stuff over to a desk on the Republican side. As a notorious defector she quickly voted with her new pals to chisel away at abortion rights and open a bigger pipeline to funnel public education money into private schools where accountability doesn't exist.

Prior to the elections of 2024, everyone knew she wouldn't survive another go in Dist. 112, so redistricting honcho Destin Hall and his committee obligingly drew Cotham's home into a new District 105, which was said in 2024 to be 51.3% Republican vs. 46.5% Democratic and 2.2% "Other" (Dave's Redistricting). Those numbers indicated a close contest. She beat the Democrat by only 213 votes that November. Currently, the Civitas Partisan Index rates Dist. 105 as R+0 or "Toss Up." 

Cotham's Primary Challenger

Kelly VanHorn was recruited as a member of North Carolina Educators on the Ballot (NCEOB) to give Cotham a Republican primary. I'm indebted to Carli Brosseau's September 2025 article in The Assembly for clueing me into NCEOB's project of convincing stand-out educators, most of whom were former Democrats, to infiltrate and subvert the NCGOP -- changing from Democrat or Unaffiliated to Republican on the ballot. Such a tactic I take to be the logical reaction to the continued abuses of power by the Republican hegemony in the General Assembly. When one political party gets too entrenched and self-serving, what else to do but dress as a wolf and walk among the wolves, pretend to join them in order to reform them. The NCEOB might look like wedge-driving, a campaign of disruption. But I consider it a wake-up call to moderate Republicans who've let their party dismantle public education.

Patricia Saylor, the founder of NCEOB, a Democrat, and the person who recruited six NCHouse candidates including Kelly VanHorn, is realistic about overcoming the gerrymanders that Republican members of the General Assembly have drawn for themselves. You don't get anywhere running as a Democrat in most districts. Saylor saw that the only path to influencing education policy would have to be done under the GOP banner. "Running in Republican primaries is the strategy of playing the ball where it lies," said Saylor. She recruited mainly registered Democrats to change their registrations to Republican and to run with a unified pro-public education message.

VanHorn issued a statement pleading with Tricia Cotham to sustain Gov. Stein's veto of H 87, a bill that would "sign North Carolina up for the new federal school voucher program authorized by President Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill." Stein vetoed it as just more "hollowing out" of public education, and VanHorn publicly praised Stein's veto: "As a fiscal conservative and a math teacher," she said, "I look at the numbers, not the political narrative. Siphoning millions from our public schools to subsidize private tuition for families already paying it—without reducing our fixed operating costs—is bad math. It inevitably forces local property taxes up to fill the gap. We cannot claim to be the party of fiscal responsibility while funding unaccountable private vendors at the expense of the taxpayer." Sounds like what ought to be Republican gospel.

Despite my hard-headed doubt about the ultimate success of NCEOB candidates, I can't wait to hear Cotham complain about someone who used to be a Democrat changing her party affiliation for the convenience of the moment. Ha! So far, Cotham is being totally quiet about her primary challenger. She's depending on the NCGOP to make the attack, which they're doing. But if VanHorn gets enough funding to build up some steam....Katy, bar the door!

The Democrat on the Ballot

I try to be a practical political operator, so I'm immediately wondering how Democrat Ken McCool's strategists and advisors are navigating a strange world in which you might be hoping that the other Democrat in the race would win her primary against Cotham. That might ultimately pose a dilemma, but that's probably not going to happen.

McCool ran for Matthews Town Commission in 2019 at the age of 20, came in 7th in a very crowded scrum, but only missed snagging one of six at-large seats by some 14 votes. When a vacancy opened up in February of 2020, the Commission recognized his showing in 2019 and appointed him to fill out the term. He was reelected a couple more times, including earning himself mayor pro tem as the top vote-getter. He and his father own Ken's Sports Cards and Collectibles in Indian Trail, which is a suburb of Matthews. According to LinkedIn, he also does subcontractor painting.

He appears to have been both very active and effective as a pro-development member of the town board. He brags about bringing Acceleration Advanced Manufacturing Campus to Matthews, which plans to occupy a large site on the I-485 loop south of Charlotte. Acceleration looks to be a subdivision of Hendrick Motor Sports, which builds high-performance vehicles among other things. McCool also claims ownership for expanding affordable housing in Matthews, delivering tangibles like a new fire station, and making "the largest investment in parks in a generation."

McCool needs an army of volunteers to start doing canvassing all over the district as soon as the weather allows, and his service to Matthews might actually produce the boots on the ground he needs. Cotham ain't gonna be a pushover. She's proven to be a survivor so far.