A leading Senate Republican is out with a new ad today accusing Democrats of being soft on crime, a message he hopes Republicans will model across the country.
In the ad, which will air on television and social media, Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.)’s leadership PAC attacks former North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper, a Democrat who is running for Senate, as “dangerously soft on crime.”
The 30-second spot, part of a six-figure ad buy and shared exclusively with POLITICO, linked Cooper’s policies to the killing of Iryna Zarutska, a 23-year old whose stabbing has become a rallying cry for the GOP. Cooper is expected to face off against former Republican National Committee Chair Michael Whatley.
“We think crime is going to be a major issue in the midterms. And Sen. Cotton will spend millions to highlight Democrats who took soft-on-crime positions when they thought it was politically popular, “ Brian Colas, Cotton’s campaign adviser, told POLITICO.
Jordan Monaghan, a Cooper campaign aide, noted that multiple media outlets have rated these claims false.
“This ad is wrong,” Monaghan said. “Roy Cooper spent his career prosecuting violent criminals as attorney general, keeping thousands of them behind bars and signing tougher bail laws. DC insider Michael Whatley and his Washington allies are spreading lies because they know Whatley’s support for cuts to local and state law enforcement make North Carolinians less safe.”
Cooper did establish a Task Force for Racial Equity in Criminal Justice, but did not call for the early release of anyone convicted of a crime, and its first recommendations were not submitted until after the release of Decarlos Brown Jr., the man accused of murdering Zarutska, the aide said.
The ad comes amid a broader push by Republicans and the Trump administration to make a law-and-order pitch to voters despite falling rates of violent crime across the country. The administration has deployed troops to Los Angeles and Washington over the objections of local officials and is poised to do the same in Memphis in an effort to show it is tough on crime.
The video of Zarutska’s death went viral, a sign for Cotton and his team that the issue of safety and criminal justice resonate deeply with voters. The ad is meant to both weaken a Democrat in one of the few swing states and offer an example to other Republicans on how to paint Democrats as liable for crime such as the Charlotte killing.
“Cooper enacted bail reform shrouded under the umbrella of criminal justice,” NRSC spokeswoman Joanna Rodriguez said. “But voters are waking up to the reality that he enabled this kind of criminal activity.”
Trump earlier this month also blamed her killing on Cooper.
“The blood of this innocent woman can literally be seen dripping from the killer’s knife, and now her blood is on the hands of the Democrats who refuse to put bad people in jail, including Former Disgraced Governor and ‘Wannabe Senator’ Roy Cooper,” Trump wrote.
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