Democratic challenger Ken McCool ousted Charlotte-area Republican state Rep. Tricia Cotham in another expensive fight for her southeast Mecklenburg County district. Cotham narrowly won another term representing southeast Mecklenburg County’s state House District 105 in 2024 after leaving the Democratic Party to become a Republican.
This year, she faced a Democratic challenge from McCool, a former Matthews town commissioner, after easily winning a March GOP primary.
With early votes and all 18 precincts reported, McCool beat Cotham by a margin of 57.1% to 42.9%, according to the State Board of Elections. Results are unofficial until certified by the Board of Elections. Cotham posted on social media shortly before 11 p.m. that she’d spoken with McCool about the results.
“I had a wonderful call congratulating (Ken McCool) tonight. I told him I would help him in anyway,” she wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter.
Cotham’s 2024 race was partly a referendum on the party switch, but she survived a recount against Nicole Sidman in a strong year for Republicans overall. Since then, she’s notched a marquee legislative victory with the successful passage of the Mecklenburg transportation overhaul she helped shepherd.
But some political insiders previously told the Observer her district’s demographics combined with statewide and national headwinds for Republicans could spell trouble in her race against McCool. That narrative played out Tuesday in state House District 105 and other parts of the Charlotte region, with Democrats holding or flipping other key legislative seats in Mecklenburg and Cabarrus counties and the state’s open U.S. Senate seat. Campaign finance reports showed McCool with a major money advantage in the final stretch of the campaign and significant support from the North Carolina Democratic Party. The district is 46.56% Democratic to 51.26% Republican, according to Dave’s Redistricting, which analyzes voting data to determine partisan lean.
This article appears courtesy of our media partner The Charlotte Observer.
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