Raleigh, NC (AP) – The Republicans in North Carolina and beyond make a concerted effort to transform death by stab Former Democratic Governor Roy Cooper In his attempt to win A key race from the American Senate It’s even more than a year old.
GOP candidate Michael Whatley said Cooper carries “direct responsibility” for the mortal August 22 attack against Iryna Zarutska Due to a commission he created in June 2020 to combat racial inequalities in the criminal justice system. The unveiling of the panel occurred weeks after The death of George Floyd In the hands of the Minneapolis police.
But Cooper’s campaign said Whatley, a recent president of the National Republican Committee, was lying on the working group. Cooper “knows that Northern Carolinians must be safe in their communities,” the campaign wrote in a statement, and his career included “keeping thousands of criminals outside the streets and behind bars”. He quotes Cooper signing a law of 2023 which hardened the rules for the liberation of prelimination.
The confrontation has sent early signals on how the Northern Carolina Senate race will be heated. It was already to be a key race in the Senate in 2026 for Democrats seeking to claim a majority in the Senate in the mid-term elections next year and could now be among the most expensive campaigns in the history of the United States.
The Democrats see the popular supply of the former governor for the open headquarters of North Carolina as one of their best collection opportunities in a landscape which largely promotes the Republicans. They need four Senate seats to claim a majority.
A tragic flash point emerges
The two candidates expressed the pain of the death of Zarutska, 23, whose horrible attack was taken in front of the camera. But public indignation Suspect of Decartlos Brown Jr. had already been arrested more than a dozen times and had recently been released on an accusation without surety provoked charges of Whatley and the allies that Cooper pushed the policies of Soft-on-Crime.
“It’s quite simple: a vote for Roy Cooper is a vote for more crime, more violence, more criminals,” said Whatley in the first days after the publication of the surveillance video.
Cooper has rejected strong.
“I was a attorney general and governor, devoting my career to put violent criminals behind bars and to keep them there,” wrote Cooper, who accused Whatley, also recent president of the GOP, that President Donald Trump encouraged to enter the race, to seek to take advantage of the death of Zarutska.
“Only a cynical initiate of DC would think that it is acceptable to use his death for political points,” he said on X.
More Republicans quickly sounded on social networks, notably Vice-President JD Vance and Trump, who posted that “his blood is in the hands of the Democrats” and named Cooper specifically.
The murder, which fits perfectly into the difficult program on Trump’s crime in major cities, gave Whatley a clear opening, said Christ Cooper, professor of political science at Western Carolina University.
“People do not know who he is. He has no high recognition of the name,” said Cooper, who is not linked to the former governor. “He therefore tries to define himself for North Carolinians, and he tries to redefine Roy Cooper.”
2 high -level candidates clashed
Cooper and Whatley both were part of the race this summer, a few weeks after the Senator of Gop Thom Tillis announcing that he would not seek re -election. Cooper had always been considered A potential candidate in the Senate In 2026. Whatley announced when Lara Trump, the president’s daughter-in-law, refused to enter.
No other high-level candidate currently in the race, the primaries of the parties do not seem to leave a general electoral battle of Cooper-Whatley.
Some experts believe that next year’s expenses could reach $ 1 billion, passing the $ 515.5 million spent overall A race for the American Senate in Georgia In 2020, Democrat Jon Ossoff in a runoff, according to Open Secret data, which follows political expenses.
The campaign assists Cooper, a proven winner for the Democrats in a southern state, against the first candidate Whatley. The deep loyalty of Whatley to Trump – who won the state’s electoral votes three times, he presented himself to the presidency – and the fundraising skills make him a formidable opponent in the closely divided state.
The suspect’s criminal history and the release would ignite criticism
Brown, who was charged with first-degree murder this month at the Criminal State Court, also faces a federal accusation In the death of Zarutska. He could face the death penalty if he was found guilty. The calls to the office of the Public Defender of the County of Mecklenburg, seeking someone who could comment on the name of Brown, was previously unanswered.
A magistrate earlier this year allowed Brown, who, in September 2020, finished more than five years in prison for qualified theft with a dangerous weapon, to be released without surety on an accusation of non -violent offense, according to the judicial archives. Brown was ordered to undergo mental health assessment after his last arrest.
The panel then-gov. Cooper created in June 2020, the working group for racial equity in criminal justice, offered dozens of recommendationsIncluding the elimination of the need for people accused of most crimes of publishing a cash guarantee, unless it would endanger someone else.
But Cooper was not a member of the working group, and the panel did not have the power to promulgate cash recommendations or to release prison people. And the recommendations of December 2020 of the working group – most of which were ignored by republican legislators – were released after Brown prison.
The head of the State Senate, Phil Berger, said at a press conference with Whatley at the beginning of the month that the working group’s recommendations reflected “an attitude towards criminal justice” which informs the magistrates to make surety decisions like that that Brown received. The general meeting controlled by the GOP should take Criminal justice reform this week.
Whatley has also criticized Cooper for A trial regulation in 2021 This forced his administration to release 3,500 offenders in the care of the state over several months. The NAACP state, the civilian American Liberties Union of Caroline of the North and others had continued to resolve the prison conditions during the Pandemic COVID-19.
Cooper pushes canceled federal subsidies
Fighting, Cooper’s campaign tried to link Whatley to the cancellation of hundreds of hundreds of subsidies from the United States justice for support programs Reduction of violence and victims of crime. Whatley has expressed broad support for government efficiency efforts in the Trump administration, although there is nothing to indicate that it actively supported these cancellations.
Chris Cooper, the Western Carolina Professor, said what Theley’s strategy on crime should be repeated – trying to link any order or action in the long career of Roy Cooper to a negative result.
This should make a long stretched competition.
“We live in an essentially constant campaign time,” said Chris Cooper. “And if anything, the temperature will only go up next November.”
