National Republican groups launched a $200,000 advertisement campaign on Monday, branding former two-term Democratic North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper as “Radical Roy,” as he officially declared his candidacy for the state’s key 2026 Senate race.
The Senate Leadership Fund, a super PAC aligned with Senate Majority Leader John Thune, launched a website describing Cooper’s gubernatorial record as “woke” and “weak” and calling him a “radical liberal in disguise.” The $200,000 purchase covers “a texting campaign, plus Google and X ads,” according to Punchbowl News.
A press release by the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) called Cooper “a wreck.”
The NRSC’s video told viewers that Cooper isn’t one of “the people you trust in the driver’s seat,” because he “crashed schools, revved up your taxes, and took a hard left on crime – letting violent criminals cruise free. Then he floored it on radical gender ideology – letting men race in women’s lanes.”
The video also pointed out the former governor’s handling of Hurricane Helene in 2024, stating, “When disaster hit North Carolina, Roy hit cruise control and showed up three days later – leaving residents nowhere to go.”
“Roy Cooper is a Democrat lapdog who spent his time as Governor sabotaging President Trump, doing Joe Biden and Kamala Harris’ bidding, releasing violent illegal aliens into North Carolina streets, and championing radical transgender ideology,” National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) Communications Director Joanna Rodriguez said in a statement.
“North Carolina wants a senator who will champion working families, safety, and American values, not an incompetent, far-left career politician like Cooper who will wreck everything they care about,” Rodriguez added.
An NRSC press release called attention to State Rep. Brenden Jones’ 2024 statement that Cooper “failed the people of eastern North Carolina,” as well as the former governor’s commutation of sentences for convicted murderers and a rapist on death row.
Senate Leadership Fund Executive Director Alex Latcham released a statement that “Chuck Schumer might be celebrating, but North Carolinians are still reeling from extreme liberal Roy Cooper’s botched response to Hurricane Helene that left over 100 people dead.”
“His pardons of violent criminals, and his vetoes that allowed boys in girls’ sports and forced higher taxes on working families,” Latcham’s statement continued, “so while Washington Democrats toast themselves for convincing a far-left career politician to seek another taxpayer job, we’ll be reminding North Carolina voters about the families Radical Roy Cooper devastated.”
Several outlets reported that Cooper would run for North Carolina’s open Senate seat on Wednesday, so Republicans were seemingly prepared when Cooper officially announced his bid for the Senate on Monday.
The hotly contested Senate race follows incumbent Republican North Carolina Sen. Thom Tillis’ retirement announcement in June. A source confirmed to the Daily Caller News Foundation that Republican National Committee (RNC) chairman Michael Whatley will enter the 2026 North Carolina Senate race with support from President Donald Trump, after former RNC Co-Chair Lara Trump, the president’s daughter-in-law, decided not to run.
The North Carolina Senate race is poised to be hotly contested. Trump won the battleground state by narrow margins in all three of his presidential campaigns, with him besting failed Democratic nominee Kamala Harris there by just over three percentage points.
Widely described as a top Democratic Senate recruit, Cooper served as the state’s governor from 2017 to 2025. He won both the 2016 and 2020 gubernatorial elections while Trump simultaneously carried the state.
Cooper’s campaign did not immediately respond to the DCNF’s request for comment.
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