Frequently Asked Questions
Answering questions you might have about Roy and his opponent Michael Whatley.
Did Roy Cooper really release 3,500 criminals?
No, Roy Cooper did not release 3,500 prisoners. A court ordered during COVID that the state reduce the prison population due to prison conditions, with advocates asking for roughly 18,000 prisoners to be released (The Assembly, July 2026; FactCheck.org, August 2026). After Gov. Cooper’s administration fought against this in court, advocates filed a lawsuit and law enforcement and parole officials made decisions on how to carry out the court order to release prisoners using similar criteria that the Trump administration used in the release of about 13,000 federal prisoners during COVID (N&O, April 2026; PoliticsNC, August 2026). The advocates appeared headed to victory after a judge ruled that they were likely to win if the case went to trial, leading to a settlement instead (WRAL, April 2026) to avoid potentially 18,000 people being released.
Roy’s opponent Michael Whatley actually attacked Roy in 2020 for resisting the prisoner release, saying Roy was not doing enough to protect prisoners during COVID (NCGOP Communications YouTube, July 2020; WSOC-TV, July 2026), and now attacks Roy for the opposite.
Did Roy Cooper release the Charlotte light rail killer, DeCarlos Brown?
No, and the claim that Roy Cooper bears responsibility was rated “false” by PolitiFact (PolitiFact, September 2025) and a number of other outlets. Brown was released in September 2020, after serving his full sentence and five months before the February 2021 court ordered settlement even existed (WRAL, February 2026). Despite the fact checks, Michael Whatley and his allies continue to use Iryna Zarutska’s tragic murder as a political attack, against the express wishes of Zarutska’s family (Queen City News, September 2025).
I saw that ads attacking Roy Cooper were false. What’s true?
Senate Leadership Fund (or SLF), the official Republican super PAC for Senate races and Michael Whatley’s largest supporters, put out two advertisements that knowingly misled voters.
The first ad featured Ronald Hayes, a gun violence prevention advocate whose son was tragically murdered. The ad attempted to connect the offender to Roy Cooper, but fact checks showed that the killer had no prior record and no connection to Cooper (The NC Beat, August 2026). After the ad aired, Hayes told press that he felt “swindled” and “deceived” by the group, who told him he was participating in a gun violence prevention ad, and that he was a supporter of Cooper (Mediaite, August 2026; NC Newsline, August 2026; WRAL, September 2026).
The second ad featured the father of Logan Federico, who was tragically murdered in South Carolina by a South Carolina criminal. SLF admitted to the News & Observer that this murder had nothing to do with Cooper, saying “[i]t is not specifically that Cooper did it” (N&O, September 2026).
Did Michael Whatley really appoint a convicted child sex offender to a leadership position?
Yes (WRAL, March 2026; The Daily Beast, March 2026; NC Newsline, July 2026).
Harvey Lee West served six years in prison for sexually abusing minors, was on the sex offender registry for more than a decade and said he was open “from day one” with NCGOP leadership, like Whatley, about his criminal past (The Daily Beast, March 2026). Despite all of that, Whatley appointed him to a top role in the NCGOP where he had close access to minors and young people at Republican events (American Journal News, August 2026). Sources said West raised money for Whatley’s Republican candidates (Washington Examiner, March 2026).
Does Roy Cooper own Duke Energy stock, or any other stocks?
No. As shown in federal disclosures, Roy Cooper owns no individual stocks, and invests only in broadly diversified mutual funds and exchange-traded funds (Charlotte Observer, August 2026), which is different from owning a company’s stock (Fidelity).
According to federal disclosures, Cooper’s opponent Michael Whatley, and his family members own as much as hundreds of thousands of dollars of individual Duke Energy, Big Oil, and Big Pharma stocks (American Journal News, April 2026; Charlotte Observer, April 2026).