Democrat Ken McCool stood alongside Gov. Josh Stein and other Democratic candidates outside an east Charlotte grocery store on Wednesday, making his pitch to unseat Republican incumbent Tricia Cotham in North Carolina House District 105. Notably absent from the campaign event was any mention of Cotham by name, even though beating her has been a central goal for Mecklenburg County Democrats for years.
A Campaign Focused on Affordability
The district, which covers parts of south Charlotte, Matthews and Mint Hill, has been a flashpoint since Cotham switched from the Democratic Party to the Republican Party in 2023, a move that handed Republicans a supermajority in both chambers of the General Assembly, according to WFAE. Republican leaders rewarded her by redrawing her district from safely Democratic to lean-Republican, as reported by The Assembly. Democrats ran what amounted to a grudge-match campaign against Cotham in 2024, per WFAE's original reporting on this race, spending heavily to try to flip the seat back.
Democrats are focusing on costs and not re-litigating Cotham's 2023 party switch.
McCool's Path From Town Hall to State House
McCool, 28, ran for the Matthews Town Commission at age 21 in 2019, lost by 13 votes and was appointed several months later after a commissioner resigned; he was reelected twice before Democrats selected him as their nominee for District 105, according to WFAE. He served as a Matthews town commissioner from 2020 through 2025 and as mayor pro tem from 2021 through 2023, per the Charlotte Observer. At the Wednesday event, McCool criticized Republicans for addressing the gas tax just three weeks before the election after 15 years without tackling the issue, framing the race as a referendum on correcting what he called 15 years of General Assembly rule on costs and public schools.
Affordability is McCool's stated top priority, and he has called for holding Duke Energy accountable for rising energy costs, the Observer reports. He has also broken with some in his own party over the P.A.V.E. Act, telling the Observer, “I disagreed with my own party on the PAVE Act. It was supported by many Democrats, but I believed it shortchanged our community by eliminating the possibility of the Silver Line in Matthews while also increasing a local sales tax.” The transit plan authorized by that act excluded funding for a light-rail extension to Matthews and instead provided for expanded bus service there, according to Carolina Public Press.
Cotham's Record on Crime and Transit
Cotham declined an interview for WFAE's reporting. She is the only Republican among Mecklenburg County's 13 state House members and has leaned heavily on public safety, pointing to her role championing Iryna's Law during her most recent term. The law, named for Iryna Zarutska, who was murdered on Charlotte's light-rail line in August 2025, makes it harder for magistrates and judges to release people with lengthy criminal records who have been arrested multiple times, per WFAE's reporting. DeCarlos Brown has been charged with killing Zarutska.
Cotham has said Brown should never have been released from jail and that catch-and-release practices for violent offenders would end that day, according to the same WFAE account. She has characterized McCool as soft on crime. To the Observer, Cotham said, “I sponsored legislation to deliver property tax relief for families, cap the personal income tax, lower energy bills,” and added, “That's why I led the charge on Iryna's Law, so violent repeat offenders don't get another chance.”
A Fight Over Transportation Money
Cotham also sponsored a bill allowing Mecklenburg County to raise its sales tax by one penny to fund a multibillion-dollar transportation plan, telling colleagues in Raleigh the measure lets voters decide whether to improve transportation in a densely populated county, per WFAE. The approved plan allocated 40% of new revenue to roads, 40% to rail and 20% to buses, according to WFAE's earlier coverage of the bill. The plan also shortened the Silver Line, according to that same WFAE reporting. Republican leadership made Cotham the centerpiece of the transportation legislation, and the Charlotte Regional Business Alliance thanked her for her efforts, according to WFAE's reporting. Yet the transit tax measure did not provide enough funding for the Silver Line light rail to reach Matthews, the same reporting notes.
Why Republicans See This Seat as Exposed
Cotham won reelection in 2024 by the slimmest margin of any Republican House member. WFAE's own reporting on the 2024 race put her victory over Democrat Nicole Sidman at 213 votes, or roughly one-third of a percentage point, while the station's election-night coverage had earlier shown her leading by 278 votes, or half a percentage point — a discrepancy the outlet has reported both ways. The Assembly separately described her 2024 margin as 213 votes, or 0.4 percentage points. Kamala Harris narrowly carried Cotham's district, and The Assembly calls Cotham the most vulnerable Republican on the 2026 ballot, saying she could be in deep trouble amid a tough national climate. The Assembly also reported that health issues, including major jaw surgery, kept Cotham off the campaign trail this cycle. Republican lawmakers redrew her district specifically for her, adding some of the most conservative precincts of south Charlotte, according to WFAE.
Carolina Public Press likewise lists District 105 as a toss-up heading into 2026, pointing to that narrow 2024 finish as evidence the seat remains in play. Neither Cotham nor McCool responded to a separate candidate questionnaire from WSOC-TV, which also confirmed the district's boundaries covering south Charlotte, Matthews and Mint Hill. With both campaigns sharpening their messages on affordability, crime and transit, voters in the district are left to weigh dueling records ahead of the election.
