What Motivates People?

I was just watching an episode of The Company You Keep, a new drama on ABC television in 2023, in which the main character, a conman, says that everyone is motivated by three things: money, power, and respect. I think that over simplifies it. I believe that fear and love are also great motivators for many people, for some being understood and accepted for who they are (which is I suppose related to "respect") is a motivator, and for a few faith might be a motivator.  Mulling about this discussion of motivation turned my thoughts to Tricia Cotham and what motivates her. 

Tricia Cotham, in case there is anyone out there living under a rock, is a 44 year old woman who ran as a Democrat for the North Carolina House of Representatives in 2022 and won, only to announce earlier this month (April 4, 2023) that she is formally switching her party from Democratic Party to Republican Party. The switch of her one vote gives the Republican party veto proof majorities in both houses, something they have long desired in dealing with North Carolina's governor, a Democrat. Democrats in her district, in North Carolina and across the nation are outraged that a candidate who presented herself as a liberal Democrat, squarely in favor of abortion rights, LGBTQ+ rights, voting rights, higher minimum wages, health care as a right, and other major liberal issues, has switched sides and is now supporting Republican legislation to restrict those rights. 

So what was Tricia Cotham's motivation for this move. Her explanation at her press conference in early April was "bullying" by Democrats. To be honest, this doesn't pass the basic "smell test" or BS meter. This is a woman who spent ten years in the North Carolina legislature previously, from 2007 to the end of 2016, during which time both her words and her actions, the legislation she sponsored and that which she voted for, placed her clearly on the liberal side. Her 2022 campaign materials, her website, her campaign speeches all repeated the themes that she had supported during her previous years in politics. It is ridiculous to think that less than two months of so called "bullying" could offset an entire lifetime of political positions. Keep in mind also that while her official announcement of party change came April 4, there were actually indicators (on Instagram and other social media) that she was joining the GOP as early as February, and that in January at the beginning of the session, the Republican Speaker of the NC House, had given her chair of a major committee, something not normally given to members of the minority party. Then there is her voting record this year. There are a few votes in which she aligned with Democrats, but there are also votes where she aligned with Republicans. 

If we want to find Cotham's motivation, I think we have to ignore her facile complaints about bullying in the few months of this year, and look instead into the six years between her leaving North Carolina politics (end of 2016) and her return in 2022. There are several things that show up in the public record that might give us some clues. 

First there's why she left politics in 2016. In 2015, Tricia Cotham made an official announcement that she was not going to seek re-election to the North Carolina House in 2016. The reasons that she gave in her press conference were that her oldest child (5 at the time) was entering school the next year and that she wanted to spend more time with her family. However, some months later we learned that really wasn't the reason, as she instead launched a campaign for U. S. House of Representatives in 2016. That bid died in the Democratic primary in 2016 when she came in a poor 3rd behind Democratic incumbent Alma Adams. So she left North Caroline politics. 

Two things that public sources tell us about Tricia Cotham in the six years between 2016 and 2022 are that she and her husband divorced and that she was became very ill with COVID19.  During her tenure in office the first time, Tricia Cotham married Jerry Meek a lawyer who was chair of the North Carolina Democratic Party, a position he had to resign due to her holding office. Meek is the father of their two boys. An article about the two of them emphasizes that an important part of their bond was their passion for politics and involvement with the North Carolina Democratic Party. 

In February 2022, before she had filed as a candidate, Tricia Cotham gave an interview with WSOC-TV about her struggles as a long-haul COVID 19 victim. In the interview Cotham was described as a "prominent former Mecklenburg County lawmaker". Cotham was suffering from her third time battling COVID (having gotten sick again in January 2022) despite having been fully vaccinated and boosted. She described herself as in "a lot of pain. My lungs hurt. I'm mentally drained."   In the interview she stressed the long term damage of blood clots and damage to her lungs, and how difficult daily life was. Her purpose in giving the interview was to stress the dangers of COVID and the reality of the long term damage that the disease could do.  There are in fact, a number of interviews that Cotham gave in February and March of 2023. Somewhere between the first one and those in later March, she had filed to run again for the N C House. In one interview, in very early March, she specifically referred to "receiving a call asking her to run" and how that call had that request had helped her in her recovery by giving her a purpose and a focus again. As March progresses, however, her answers on why she decided to run again, mention conversations with friends and family, but making the decision on her own, as a way of giving her life meaning again. There have been numerous indicators since the 2023 session began that COVID continues to make daily life difficult for Cotham, and she has missed a number of votes (a few crucial to maintaining Vetoes) because of COVID related medical appointments. 

So thinking about motivation again, it is probably not power that drives Cotham. The district in which she ran and won, is strongly Democratic. She is highly unlikely to win another term, even as an incumbent. So she did not do this to further her political career. She is most likely aware that the change in party has probably made her a one term representative. But I also suspect that she realized fairly quickly that long term COVID was impairing her ability to do the job of representative - she may have even realized that before she was sworn in, because campaigning is not an easy job.  The big question is did she know that before she even started the campaign: did she go into it knowing that she was going to switch parties, and that this was a short term gig? When did she change and what motivated her?