Updated Dec. 16.
Three Democrats have entered the race to unseat Mecklenburg state House member Tricia Cotham, who switched from the Democratic Party to the Republican Party in the spring in a move that upended North Carolina politics.
The first candidate to file was Yolanda Holmes. She finished second to Cotham in a four-person field in the 2022 Democratic primary for Cotham’s current House seat.
She has worked for the U.S. Department of Defense and Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools.
She didn’t return calls from WFAE. She texted that her campaign manager would respond, but that hasn’t happened. She doesn’t yet have a campaign website for next year’s race.
On Thursday, Nicole Sidman also entered the race. She hasn’t run for office before, though she ran Christy Clark’s successful 2018 state House race against Republican John Bradford.
Originally from New York, she has been in Charlotte since 2017. She is the director of congregational life at Temple Beth El.
On Friday morning, Democrat Terry Lansdell also filed to run. He’s a member of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Planning Commission and executive director of BikeWalkNC.
WFAE hasn't been able to reach Lansdell yet.
Cotham’s reelection bid for House District 105 in November will likely draw national attention — and could be one of the state’s most expensive House races ever. It’s not just a match that could help decide total control of a closely divided legislature — for many Democrats, it’s a grudge match.
Sidman said she decided to run after Cotham’s switch to the GOP gave Republicans a supermajority in the legislature. That allowed them to override Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper’s vetoes and helped the GOP pass a ban on most abortions after 12 weeks.
Cotham had previously been a staunch supporter of abortion rights and was even featured in national news reports in 2015 for an impassioned speech on the statehouse floor about her own abortion procedure.
“I saw somebody who had promised her constituents one thing and then within a number of months completely flipped and it was not a decision she made without consequences,” Sidman said. “It was not just a political choice she made. By doing that she has really impacted people’s lives in so many ways.”
Sidman added: “I just felt like this was the opposite of what democracy is supposed to look like. You are supposed to be able to count on the people you voted for.”
When Cotham won her seat in 2022, it was a heavily Democratic district that included east Charlotte.
It’s now been redrawn to help Cotham win reelection and includes Mint Hill, Matthews and south Charlotte.
Donald Trump won the precincts in the new district by two percentage points in 2020. But Cooper won it by one percentage point that same year.
Last year, Republican Ted Budd edged Democrat Cheri Beasley by a little more than one percentage point in the U.S. Senate race.
Cotham, who lives in Mint Hill, helped the town government and other organizations there secure more than $18 million in special funding from the recent state budget.
