Roy Cooper's Legacy of 'Death by Illegal Alien' Rears Its Ugly Head Again
Progressive policy ambitions meet practical realities as Americans weigh costs and consequences.
Four points. That's the number that ought to make North Carolina Democrats nervous, because Roy Cooper was supposed to be a lock. This was the seat national Democrats circled in red on the map as their easy pickup, the guy with sky-high name recognition and a governor's mansion behind him.
New Republican Times Editorial Board
Former Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper is in trouble. He was popular and seemingly unbeatable, but then Public Policy Polling, a Democratic firm, had him only four points ahead of Republican Michael Whatley.
His favorability ratings are nearly underwater. What’s going on? Well, people are learning about his relentless support of illegal aliens who have killed American citizens. When Democratic survey takers say there’s a path to victory for Republicans in this race, which was largely seen as a Democratic pickup, you know there’s trouble.
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New Republican Times Editorial Board
Four points. That's the number that ought to make North Carolina Democrats nervous, because Roy Cooper was supposed to be a lock. This was the seat national Democrats circled in red on the map as their easy pickup, the guy with sky-high name recognition and a governor's mansion behind him. Instead his own party's pollster has him nearly underwater on favorability against a Republican most people outside the state have never heard of. That doesn't happen by accident.
What's catching up to Cooper is years of a record on illegal immigration that he apparently assumed voters would forget or never notice. Sanctuary-style policies and soft enforcement postures don't stay abstract forever. They show up as names, as families, as North Carolinians who are dead because someone here illegally was allowed to stay here despite chances to remove them. That's not a talking point invented in a campaign ad. It's a body count with a paper trail, and Cooper signed off on the paper trail.
The instinct in Democratic circles has always been that immigration enforcement is a losing issue to raise, something Republicans exploit out of malice rather than legitimate grievance. This race is testing that theory in real time, and so far the theory is losing. Voters aren't confused about the difference between compassion and negligence. When a governor's legacy includes preventable deaths tied directly to lax enforcement, calling that a "myth" or a "dog whistle" stops working.
Whatley isn't winning this race yet, and four points is still four points. But the fact that Cooper's own side is sounding alarms tells you something the national press has been slow to admit: voters remember who protected illegal aliens over American citizens, and they're not inclined to forgive it just because an election rolls around.
Commentary written with AI assistance by the New Republican Times Editorial Board.