CHARLOTTE, N.C. (QUEEN CITY NEWS) – Representative Tricia Cotham switched parties, putting Democrats on the defensive in North Carolina.

After the House voted in favor of a bill banning abortions after 12 weeks on Wednesday, the Senate approved the bill on Thursday.

“Voters deserve to know how Tricia Cotham was going to vote on these issues before she went into the general assembly,” said Anderson Clayton, chair of the N.C. Democratic Party. “And they voted her in on those values.”

Many feel those values and promises have been broken.

“I really don’t think that should be allowed,” Mack added as he walked the Mint Hill Veterans Memorial Park trail. “Because she is not representing her constituents who voted her in.”

Since the move in April, there have been online petitions to recall Cotham, a move to show anger by constituents, but it is not a law.

“As much as I can remember, there’s not a grounds for that in her case or even at all,” said Davidson political science professor Susan Roberts.

That means votes like Wednesday night limiting abortions to the first 12 weeks of a woman’s pregnancy will become law.

Even though a year ago, Tricia Cotham tweeted she would protect women’s rights.

“The trust is not definitely there anymore,” said N.C. District 112 resident Krizia Santiago. “You can’t say one thing and go back to another.”

Without trust, it could mean no seat in the N.C. House Chamber; some voters already say they won’t re-elect Tricia Cotham.

“If they allow that to happen, then it damages the trust of voters,” added Mack.

“I can’t imagine any way in the world she can hold that seat absence of a huge migration out of the district and an immigration of Republicans,” said Roberts. “Which isn’t going to happen.”

Queen City News did reach out to the N.C. Republican Party and representative Tricia Cotham, but neither have responded.