In southern Mecklenburg, a Gen Z-er hopes to unseat an incumbent he once admired
Former Matthews councilman Ken McCool at the Friendship Missionary Baptist Church candidate forum (photo by Rachel Black); incumbent for N.C. House 105 Tricia Cotham
Ken McCool considered himself an apolitical person for much of his life. That changed when his class at Providence High School was visited by a state politician: Tricia Cotham, a Democrat who had graduated from the school in 1997. She spoke to the class about her work in the legislature, igniting in McCool an interest in running for public office.
Now, McCool, 28 — a former Matthews councilman — is hoping to unseat Cotham in what’s expected to be a competitive race for North Carolina House District 105. After being reelected in 2022 as a Democrat, Cotham in a controversial move switched to the GOP the next year, then narrowly won reelection as a Republican candidate in 2024.
“It has been…‘strange’ maybe is the best way to put it,” McCool told The Election Hub.
“I really looked up to her,” McCool added. “I followed her on social media and kept up with everything she was doing; I was a big supporter of hers. She introduced me to politics, really.”
When McCool registered to vote at 18, he did so under the Republican Party, following his parents’ lead. He later switched to being an unaffiliated voter, then settled on the Democratic Party in 2020. He told The Election Hub that he felt the Democratic Party aligned best with his values as a Christian to “feed the hungry, clothe the naked, house the homeless and help the poor.”
McCool is running for the District 105 seat (which covers Mint Hill and parts of Matthews and south Charlotte) on a platform of fully funding public schools, strengthening public safety, holding elected officials accountable and lowering the cost of living by delivering on state funding, so that local governments don’t feel as much pressure to raise property taxes.
These goals are similar to ones he had as a town councilman. In 2019, when he was 21, McCool ran unsuccessfully for Matthews Town Council, but was appointed to a seat after a council member resigned. He served on the council until 2025, which included a stint as mayor pro tem, with goals of adding more affordable housing, building a new fire station and bringing a new elementary school to town — all of which he helped push through and is touting on the campaign trail.
He and other council members also helped kill an unpopular proposed data center project — partly because it would have “exploded” Duke Energy rates, which he says he’d work to keep down if he is elected to serve in the statehouse.
Cotham is running on her support for eliminating the income cap for private school voucher eligibility, arguing that the “Opportunity Scholarships” give parents more control over their children’s education. She’s also touting tax cuts passed in the GOP-led state budget in 2023 — which fast-tracks the timeline for lowering the flat income tax rate as long as the state meets certain revenue goals — and her role in temporarily suspending the gas and diesel tax until Nov. 30. And in her campaign, she’s emphasizing her efforts to crack down on crime, like Iryna’s Law, a controversial sweeping criminal justice bill she championed after the fatal stabbing of Iryna Zarutska on the Lynx Blue Line.
Cotham did not respond to The Election Hub’s calls and emails requesting an interview for this story.
A controversial switch
While McCool was serving on Matthews Town Council, Cotham was representing District 105 and contemplating crossing over to the Republican Party. McCool told The Election Hub he supported her campaign in 2022.
But Cotham made the switch in April 2023, giving Republicans in the North Carolina statehouse a veto-proof supermajority. Cotham said the Democratic Party had become “unrecognizable” and that she had been “bullied” by Democratic colleagues.
In 2024, Cotham was challenged by Democrat Nicole Sidman, a friend of McCool. But Sidman lost by half a percentage point — and this year’s race could be even closer. Back then, McCool said he had “unfinished business” on town council and had hoped Sidman could win. But he had started to float the idea of a statehouse run when he served as Matthews’ liaison to Raleigh, and his decision was cemented in 2025.
McCool said that in February that year, he and another council member, Renee Garner, tried to arrange a policy conversation with Cotham about the PAVE Act — landmark transportation legislation she championed that paved the way for the transit tax referendum in November 2025. Leaders in Matthews like McCool opposed the bill because it forwent the long-awaited Silver Line extension to their town, while still imposing the penny sales tax increase. But McCool and Garner say that when they went to Raleigh, Cotham did not speak to them about policy, posed for a picture, then said she had another event to get to.
McCool said that a few months later, in June 2025, he visited a transportation committee hearing to speak publicly about the PAVE Act, but was gaveled down. The next day, he announced his run for the House District 105 seat.
“God willing, I’m going to live another 50, 60 years, and so the decisions that are being made right now I’m going to have to live with for the next six decades,” he said.
McCool feels his youth — and even his hobbies — make him approachable for voters. He’s a sports enthusiast and plays on the Matthews Police Department’s teams, and owns a small business with his father that sells baseball cards and other memorabilia. At campaign events, he often wears brightly patterned socks and ties — at a candidate forum on Oct. 6, his socks had an image of a golf course printed on them.
“I’m a normal guy, and I want to be accessible,” he said. “I think people around my age are disillusioned by politics, and a lot of people are ready for change.”
Cotham was not present at that Oct. 6 forum.
Paralleling paths
In a few ways, McCool and Cotham’s political ascensions seem to parallel each other. McCool cut his political teeth after he was appointed to Matthews Town Commission in 2019 following a resignation; Cotham cut hers when she was appointed to a seat in the General Assembly following a resignation in 2007.
And they both started their political careers young — if McCool wins in November, he will take Cotham’s spot in the General Assembly as the same age she was when she first entered it: 28.
But there are some major differences, too.
Cotham, a former Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools teacher and principal, replaced Democrat Jim Black in 2007 for the House District 100 seat, which she held until 2017. During that time, she advocated for Democratic causes like LGBT+ rights, increased public school funding and abortion access. In 2015, she gave a passionate speech on the House floor condemning House Bill 465, which extended North Carolina’s mandatory 24-hour waiting period before an abortion to 72 hours. She spoke from her personal experience having a medically-induced abortion after her doctor said her pregnancy would not be viable.
Cotham returned to the General Assembly in 2022 to represent House District 112. But she joined Republicans in supporting right-leaning legislation, like House Bill 10, which required sheriffs to cooperate with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). In April 2023, Cotham officially became a Republican, giving the GOP a veto-proof supermajority. After the switch, she voted in favor of a bill restricting transgender students’ participation in school sports, and cast the deciding vote to limit North Carolina’s abortion ban from 20 to 12 weeks.
In 2024, Cotham was elected to the District 105 seat after GOP-led redistricting. This year, she is also campaigning on her name recognition.
And since District 105 was redrawn, giving Republicans a slight advantage, that could be enough — as it was 2024, when most of the country saw a rightward shift.
In a recent ad, Cotham said McCool was “supported by the radical left and their ‘defund the police’ mob.” McCool says that it “shows how much Tricia Cotham doesn’t show up in the district.”
“These people [first responders] are my friends,” he told The Election Hub. “It is just a sad and cheap ploy to try and politicize our first responders.”
McCool said he just wants politics to be “boring” — and he thinks that’ll earn him votes, even from people who might usually disagree with him on policy.
“It should be good work on behalf of the people, make people’s lives better, and then we shut up,” he said. “I think that’s something that’s resonated with a lot of people.”
The election is Nov. 3. Early voting is until Oct. 31.
Rachel Black is a reporter and writer for The Election Hub. Reach her at rachel@theelectionhub.org.
For information on this and other races on the ballot in Mecklenburg, Gaston and Cabarrus counties and beyond, check out The Election Hub. It is a project of the Civic Knowledge Initiative, a nonpartisan nonprofit based in Charlotte that makes it easy for every citizen to find, understand and act on reliable information about their local government and elected officials.
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