FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Friday, October 9, 2020
CONTACT: Liz Doherty
25 Days From E-Day, 25 Reasons Why Dan Forest is Unfit to be Governor
RALEIGH — With 25 days out from the election, Cooper for NC presents 25 reasons why Dan Forest is unfit to be Governor.
Liz Doherty, Cooper for NC spokesperson, said, “Honestly? It was hard to pick just 25 reasons why Dan Forest is too dangerous for North Carolina. This list isn’t exhaustive.”
During the Pandemic, Forest Has Prioritized Politics Over the Health and Safety of North Carolinians
1. Forest has held numerous in-person events during the pandemic without masks or social distancing.
2. Forest has made it a goal to “shake as many hands” as he can at campaign events.
3. Forest has repeatedly spread dangerous misinformation about the pandemic, saying “masks don’t work with viruses” and that kids are “17 times” more likely to get the flu than COVID.
4. Forest has called for schools to reopen immediately with no safety precautions, saying that he doesn’t “think there’s any science that backs… up” wearing masks in schools.
5. Forest said he’d lift the mask mandate if he was governor.
6. Forest told a reporter back in May, “I think everything should be open.” At the time, the Atlantic noted, Forest also “appears to be in the minority on reopening.”
7. Even compared to other Republicans, Forest has taken a much more extreme stance on reopening.
8. Forest said that protecting people with pre-existing conditions is not ample “moral justification” for COVID response.
9. Forest tried to sue the Governor over his pandemic orders, in an effort to prop up his own campaign. Ultimately, he dropped the lawsuit.
Forest Opposes Medicaid Expansion, Blocking Coverage for Over Half a Million North Carolinians, Including Veterans and Families
10. Forest opposes Medicaid expansion, blocking health care coverage for over half a million North Carolinians during the pandemic.
11. While Forest has made it clear that he doesn’t support Medicaid expansion, he has yet to offer a clear alternative and refused to do so when asked.
12. Forest even went as far to say that health care is “not [an] issue that the people of North Carolina really care about.”
Forest Can’t Even Be Bothered to Show Up to His Current Job(!!!)…Now He Wants A Promotion?
13. Forest has missed 44% of State Board of Education meetings (2013-present) and 44% of SBE meetings during COVID-19 pandemic (March-present).
14. Forest has missed 84% of State Board of Community Colleges meetings (2013-2019).
15. Forest has missed over 75% Military Affairs Commission meetings (2013-present).
16. Forest has missed over ⅓ of Senate sessions (2013-2018). Reporters have expressed surprise when he shows up to his job.
17. Forest skipped work, but he somehow found the time to attend campaign fundraisers and give interviews on Fox Business and conservative radio.
Forest Wants to Starve Public Schools of Funding
18. Forest wants to expand the school voucher program, which starves funding for public schools and would use tax money to help rich people send their children to private schools.
Forest Supports Offshore Drilling and Fracking
19. Forest supports off-shore drilling, even as President Trump adds NC to offshore drilling ban.
Forest Spreads Divisive Falsehoods
20. Forest has yet to denounce LG Candidate Mark Robinson’s jarringly offensive Facebook content. Robinson’s hateful remarks included saying that cultural acceptance of homosexuality was part of a slide toward pedophilia and “the end of civilization as we know it.”
21. Forest declared not once, but twice, that Vice President Joe Biden “probably won’t make it” to Inauguration Day.
22. Forest refused to condemn racism at 311 Speedway, after Mike Fulp, one of Forest’s proudest supporters, posted an ad for “Bubba rope” or nooses.
23. On Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Forest declared that “There’s no doubt that, when Planned Parenthood was created, it was created to destroy the entire black race.”
24. Forest said that no nation “has survived the diversity and multiculturalism that America faces today.”
25. Forest’s largest donor was sentenced to over 7 years in prison for his role in one of North Carolina’s biggest political bribery scandals. Lindberg has contributed $2.4 million to committees which back Forest’s run.
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