CASH MICHAELS
WHAT LIES FROM MICHAEL WHATLEY
By Cash Michaels
I get it, I get it! Roy Cooper is one of the most powerful figures in North Carolina election history, so in order to defeat the formidable Democrat, you’ve got to come with guns loaded for bear, because the people of North Carolina genuinely like him.
But the crap and outright lies the Michael Whatley campaign, and those reportedly supporting the former RNC head to be elected to the US Senate seat being vacated by outgoing Senator Thomas Tillis have been telling in recent Whatley TV campaign commercials have been beyond the pale.
And I’m from New York, the home of some of the most dishonest, disgusting political campaign advertising in history, so I grew up watching lie after lie on TV. After I moved to North Carolina, I’ve even lived through the 1984 Hunt-Helms campaign when Sen. Jesse Helms aired the infamous “white hands” commercial blaming affirmative action for white people in North Carolina not getting jobs they felt “belonged” to them.
I’ve seen a lot of disgraceful campaign advertising during my years as a reporter, and even long before that, but these current Michael Whatley campaign ads take the cake. They essentially add up to the following:
“The unexpected floods in Nepal have killed hundreds, if not thousands. Had Roy Cooper been doing his job as NC governor, those people might still be alive today!”
Absolutely ridiculous, heartless and certainly untrue, and yet, that’s what’s being put on TV to try to bring Roy Cooper’s numbers down in the US Senate race with Michael Whatley, truth be damned. Interestingly, Whatley’s name is never mentioned in the ad.
And the most sickening part about all of it is that the plan is working! One moment we hear that Cooper is soaring by twelve points ahead in the polls. Then we hear that that number has been cut down to just five. Now we’re hearing that it will be a “tight race” going into the stretch.
It shouldn’t be. But that, unfortunately, are what elections are all about in this country. Who can lie the best to win, and that usually adds up to who can scare the socks off of folks the most. Instead of campaigning on the issues - what important elections should always be about - we have candidates who campaign to our fears. In the old days, race was the “old reliable” bugaboo that campaigns used to mostly scare mostly white, Republican-leaning voters to cast ballots against Democrats.
Michael Whatley’s campaign proves that not much has changed.
But now we have what’s known as super political action committees, or super PACs, “independent political groups that are not directed by political campaigns, but nonetheless raise and spend money to elect or oppose political candidates to office.”
In the case of Michael Whatley, the Republican Senate Leadership Fund is a super PAC that “ works to protect and expand the Republican majority in the United States Senate.” Lord knows they’ve been on the job here in North Carolina to make sure that the Senate GOP maintains its slim majority the US Senate, especially since North Carolina was originally in the toss-up column just a few weeks ago. But campaign whoppers like the following from the Republican Fund have so far kept Michael Whatley in business.
This from FactCheck.org:
An ad from a super PAC supporting Republican Senate candidate Michael Whatley features a heart-wrenching testimonial from the father of a woman who was murdered in 2025. The ad falsely implies the accused murderer was one of the prisoners released during the COVID-19 pandemic when Whatley’s Democratic opponent, Roy Cooper, was governor of North Carolina.
The problem: Cooper had nothing to do with the accused murderer’s release. The suspect was released from a prison in South Carolina, not North Carolina.
And the victim was killed in Columbia, SC, NOT North Carolina. Here’s the news link to absolutely prove it - https://www.wistv.com/2026/05/04/one-year-since-logan-federicos-death-where-does-her-case-stand/
Here’s how the ad from the Senate Leadership Fund or SLF PAC, tiptoes the line, implying, but not directly stating, that Cooper was indirectly responsible for the woman’s death.
“Logan was the most caring, loving person,” Stephen Federico, the father of a 22-year-old murdered in 2025, says in the ad while choking back tears. “It was a home invasion. Went to the house where Logan was sleeping and he pulled her out of bed and forced her on her knees and stuck a shotgun in her, left side of her chest, and pulled the trigger for no reason. Logan was a casualty of an agenda. Roy Cooper let 3,500 criminals out on the street; 18 of them were murders. Forty years of Roy Cooper is enough.”
What’s amazing here is how the SLF PAC doesn’t allow cold facts to get in the way of a flat out lying campaign ad. In 2021 during the growing COVID-19 pandemic in North Carolina, Gov. Cooper was sued and forced to reluctantly release, after negotiations, 3,500 nonviolent prisoners from North Carolina prisoners to relieve overcrowding.
NONE OF THOSE RELEASED PRISONERS HAD ANYTHING TO DO WITH THE MURDER 22-YEAR-OLD LOGAN FEDERICO.
Nor did any of those prisoners have a thing to do with the subsequent murders of Shemar Hayes in Charlotte, or the much publicized stabbing death of Ukrainian immigrant Iryna Zautska on the Charlotte transit system by Decarlos Dejuan Brown, Jr.
No one is saying that these ghastly and tragic crimes did not occur. Only that Roy Cooper had nothing to do with them. That means absolutely nothing he did or have happen had anything to do with these crimes occurring.
In the case of 23-year-old Shemar Hayes, the SLF PAC reportedly asked his father Ronald, to be interviewed for an “anti-gun violence” spot talking about the murder of his son, and to pretend like he’s speaking directly to Roy Cooper. According to Mr. Hayes, he was never told what the true purpose of the “interview” was for. Mr. Hayes is a Black Democrat, and told The News and Record that he plans to vote for Roy Cooper again, signaling that he does NOT blame the former Democratic governor for the death of his son.
You would absolutely think so upon watching the slick, touching SLF PAC campaign commercial that’s running.
In the case of the murder of Ukrainian immigrant Iryna Zautska on the Charlotte transit system by Decarlos Dejuan Brown, Jr., again, false flag, especially when the Charlotte-Mecklenburg DA was a Republican and was responsible, not Cooper, for Brown’s release to the streets after incarceration.
Here’s the kicker though - neither the Whatley campaign nor the SLF-PAC are worried about people taking the time to dig up the truth before they vote. They’re looking to shave off just enough support to make it a horse race to the end, which means as long as the money holds up and the polling gives the green light, we can expect more boldface lies from the SLF PAC and the Whatley campaign.
Republicans and Democrats are already baked into their positions, so these negative Cooper ads are designed to influence the considerable number of independent voters we have throughout the state.
It’s simply impossible for me to have any respect for any candidate for public office - be he or she Democrat or Republican - who lies like the day is long just to win an election. And it looks like Michael Whatley fits that description to a “T.”
Before you cast your extremely valuable ballot for any candidate, please do a little homework on who they are, what policies they support and don’t support, and if telling the truth is something they seem to have a problem with. Then make your decision, and vote in this fall’s November 3rd midterm elections.
We need you, but we need you because ALL of us deserve honesty in the people we elect to office.
-30-
