North Carolina Republicans are hard-pressed to find anything negative to say about Democratic Senate candidate Roy Cooper, the former governor who has a 51.5% approval rating in the state and holds an 11 percentage point lead over former Republican National Committee Chair Michael Whatley in polls. They’re so desperate, in fact, they’re resorting to fabrication.

On Aug. 5, the Senate Leadership Fund, a political action committee (PAC) that works to elect Republicans to Congress, published a video depicting Ronald Hayes, whose son Shemar was killed by a gunman in March 2024.

The ad says Cooper allowed 3,500 inmates in North Carolina prisons to be released early, leading the viewer to make the connection that the man who killed Hayes’ son was one of them.

“Is my son going to get a second chance?” Hayes asks the screen. “No, he’s never coming back.”

Roy Cooper attack ad is riddled with misinformation

But according to a recent interview in the Greensboro News & Record, the ad fudges the facts and uses a grieving father to........

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