AP Photo/Hannah Schoenbaum
- Two of North Carolina's top GOP leaders encouraged Tricia Cotham to run for office last year, per The Times.
- Cotham, from a family with deep Democratic roots, flipped to the GOP three months into her new term.
- She has since voted with Republicans to override key vetoes made by Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper.
In 2022, Tricia Cotham mulled over the possibility of a return to the North Carolina House of Representatives, where she had served as a Democratic lawmaker from 2007 to 2017.
While Cotham was a familiar face to Democrats in the Charlotte area, local activists didn't realize she was seriously considering coming back to the legislature until she filed for the Democratic primary shortly before last year's filing deadline.