Democrat Roy Cooper touted policies aimed at reducing consumer costs Tuesday as he pushed back against a Republican group that announced plans to spend millions in support of his main opponent in the race for North Carolina’s open U.S. Senate seat. 

Speaking to a group in Fayetteville, Cooper promoted an initiative he launched in 2024 to reduce or forgive some medical debt for North Carolina families and he touted his efforts to expand Medicaid in the state. The former two-term governor also underscored his experience as attorney general.

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“I worked to keep communities safe by prosecuting violent criminals and sex predators and keeping them behind bars,” Cooper said. “I also stood up to big corporations and scammers who were ripping off everyday people.”

The remarks came less than 24 hours after the Senate Leadership Fund said it would spend more than $340 million on U.S. Senate races across the country, including $71 million to support Republican Michael Whatley in North Carolina, as the GOP tries to maintain control of the chamber.

Much of the SLF money is expected to be spent on attack ads. In announcing the investment, the political action committee sought to characterize Cooper as a “failed governor” who was soft on crime and “drove up costs for working families and deserted thousands of victims devastated by Hurricane Helene.” 

Cooper  has never lost an election and managed to win gubernatorial elections in years when President Donald Trump also won the Tar Heel State. He holds a 14-point lead over Whatley in a recent Catawba College poll. 

Cooper made reference to the GOP group’s investment during his speech in Fayetteville and warned of what he characterized as a coming misinformation campaign against him.

“They've already started it,” he said. “But we need to make sure that we can fight back and that we can set the record straight.” 

Republicans have attempted to blame the former governor’s policies for the conditions that led to the death of Iryna Zarutska on a Charlotte commuter train, a claim Cooper has denied and PolitiFact has debunked. The Senate Leadership Fund, in its announcement Monday, said: “Cooper spent eight years releasing violent criminals into North Carolina’s communities,” echoing messaging from other Republicans alleging that Cooper was responsible for a mass release of prisoners including the man charged with killing Zarutska. 

Cooper in 2021 agreed to the early release or transition of 3,500 prisoners after civil rights groups sued the state and won an early court decision, alleging that Cooper’s administration wasn’t keeping inmates safe during the COVID-19 pandemic. The man charged with killing Zarutska was released from prison before Cooper signed the settlement.

Whatley hit a similar note about Cooper’s record on crime last week when WRAL asked him about recent polls that showed Cooper with stronger favorability among voters. “Roy Cooper has been an absolute disaster when it comes to crime, when it comes to protecting our kids, letting thousands upon thousands of criminals out and setting up a revolving door to put them back on the streets again and again and again,” Whatley said. “So we're going to prosecute this election, we're going to have a very successful run.”

Whatley added: “Good policy is good politics. And we are fighting for more jobs. We are fighting for better jobs. We are fighting for more take-home pay, for people to get lower taxes. Those are the issue sets that people really, truly care about.”

Cooper spent the primary focused on economic issues — a top concern of North Carolina voters, and one that Whatley pressed as he stumped for Trump ahead of the 2024 election. Cooper has held several events focused on that issue in recent weeks as gas prices rise and as North Carolinians have grown increasingly dissatisfied with Trump’s handling of the economy. 

About 55% of North Carolina adults polled in March by Elon University said the economy has gotten worse during Trump’s second term. That’s up from 49% in September. And 47% gave the economy a ‘D’ or ‘F’ grade in March, up from 43% in September. 

“We’ve got to make stuff cost less because so many North Carolina families are seeing higher rent, higher utilities, higher child care, higher health care,” Cooper said Tuesday in Fayetteville. “And for so many families, there's just too much month at the end of the money.”