One of the things I get asked about often by people following the North Carolina Senate race is how former Gov. Roy Cooper, the Democrat nominee, has lasted as long as he has in state politics.
Cooper, who is 69, has literally held public office for over half his life, first as a state representative, then as a state senator, then as attorney general, and then as governor. For decades, he presented himself as sort of a middle-of-the-road, folksy Democrat who would say one thing to constituents depending on what he thought they wanted to hear but then act another way whenever he was in Raleigh.
He was dragged further to the left in the latter part of his days as attorney general, and even more so once he became governor, where policies that prioritized "social justice" woketivism, and "transgender rights" became the order of the day.
SEE ALSO: Senate Leadership Fund Makes Big Move in North Carolina Senate Race, and It's About Time
As RedState recently reported, the GOP super PAC Senate Leadership Fund (SLF) started hitting the gas in the Senate race in late July with a big ad investment designed to boost the campaign of Republican nominee Michael Whatley, the former chairman of the RNC who also previously chaired the NC Republican Party.
Among the first ads they've released is the one below, showing Stephen Federico, the father of 22-year-old murder victim Logan Federico, speaking out against letting violent repeat offenders go free. It's short, simple, yet very powerful, with the message that 40 years of soft on crime policies from Cooper - including those that let out some 3,500 offenders during his first term - "was enough":
NEW AD: @RoyCooperNC’s reckless policies and decision to release 3,500 violent criminals put every family in North Carolina at risk.
— Senate Leadership Fund (@Senate_Fund) August 19, 2026
Stephen’s daughter Logan was a casualty of an agenda. pic.twitter.com/yPTAhaBImp
Rushing to the rescue was Raleigh-based WRAL's Politifact NC guy Andy Specht, who seemed perplexed on why the SLF would release an ad like this about Cooper, considering the victim was killed in South Carolina, and the repeat offender was a South Carolinian:
The victim in this case, Logan Federico, was killed in South Carolina.
— Andy Specht (@AndySpecht) August 19, 2026
The suspect, Alexander Dickey, was arrested and released several times in South Carolina prior to the murder.
The ad uses a South Carolina case to attack a North Carolina candidate. https://t.co/NJfht3YVTw
What did he leave out? Something mentioned directly in the ad: That Logan Federico was a North Carolina native, and that crimes like the one committed against her while she was staying in South Carolina are committed every day by the type of repeat offenders Roy Cooper released on our communities during his time as North Carolina's governor.
RELATED: The Politically Incestuous Relationship Between North Carolina Dems and the Local Media Continues
Yours truly proceeded to fact-check the fact-checker:
The victim was a North Carolina native who was staying in South Carolina at the time and was victimized by the exact type of violent repeat offender that Roy Cooper's policies would have enabled to be released here in NC. #ncpol #ncsen https://t.co/lLq7DgfUr1
— Sister Toldjah 💙 (@sistertoldjah) August 19, 2026
I wrote about the Federico case last September, when the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Oversight held a field hearing at a Charlotte, NC courthouse in the aftermath of Iryna Zarutska's murder to talk about victims of crime, to hear stories from their families, and to advocate for things that need to be done to prevent crime and to hold violent career criminals and their woke enablers to account.
Mr. Federico spoke passionately and emotionally about his daughter - and spoke in blunt terms about what was done to her, allegedly by a violent repeat offender who should not have been out on the streets. Insultingly, Democrat Rep. Deborah Ross (NC-02) mixed up the names and images of Zarutska and Federico, which did not sit well with the latter's father.
"Her name's Logan Federico, not Iryna," Federico said as he pointed to Logan's picture while looking at Ross. "And you will not forget her. I promise you," he indicated to Ross and others in the subcommittee.
"You will be sick and tired of my face and my voice until this gets fixed. I will fight to my last breath for my daughter," Mr. Federico vowed.
Mr. Federico wants justice for his daughter and wants to protect other innocent people, including those in his home state, from also becoming victims due in part to the type of policies supported by the Democrat nominee and career politician who wants to be this state's next senator.
It's shameful, though not surprising in the least, that a left-wing media-aligned "fact-checker" at a local legacy media outlet sought to rush to Roy Cooper's rescue by fact-checking an ad that needed no fact check at all. They've been willing defenders of Cooper's near-40-year reign of error in North Carolina, so this is about par for the course.
Editor’s Note: The 2026 Midterms will determine the fate of President Trump’s America First agenda. Republicans must maintain control of both chambers of Congress.
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