The National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) has launched a hard-hitting digital ad slamming North Carolina Senate candidate and former Governor Roy Cooper, branding him “Democrat’s Favorite Shotgun Rider.” The ad accuses Cooper of blindly following the far-left agenda of national Democrats, while abandoning the working people of his own state.
The timing of the ad is no accident. Cooper recently appeared at his first in-person Senate campaign event, a move critics say comes too little, too late after mounting backlash over his record. The NRSC ad pulls no punches, calling out Cooper’s alleged failures on public safety, tax policy, and disaster response.
“Career politician Roy Cooper spent nearly 40 years loyally pushing the Democrats’ far-left agenda in North Carolina,” said NRSC Regional Press Secretary Nick Puglia. “He left the state less safe, less prosperous, and more radically woke than he found it.”
The ad, partially generated with AI, mocks Cooper for being “chauffeured around North Carolina for years,” claiming he used that detachment to justify raising taxes, keeping schools closed during the pandemic, and allowing biological males to compete in women’s sports.
But it doesn’t stop there. The voice-over criticizes Cooper for praising President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris after what the NRSC calls a “botched” hurricane response. It reminds voters Cooper once labeled Donald Trump a “threat to democracy”—a line that’s already raising eyebrows among North Carolina’s conservative base.
Cooper is expected to face Michael Whatley, the former RNC chair and a Trump ally, in the 2026 general election. Republicans are framing the race as a referendum on Cooper’s gubernatorial legacy—and if this ad is any indication, the gloves are already off.
