As North Carolina governor, Democrat Roy Cooper followed the party playbook on public safety, releasing thousands of prisoners during the pandemic and emphasizing social justice as riots broke out during the Black Lives Matter heyday.
That record came under attack this week as outrage erupted over the stabbing death of 23-year-old Iryna Zarutska in Charlotte, pushing the crime issue to the forefront nationwide and placing Mr. Cooper on defense as he seeks his state’s U.S. Senate seat, being vacated by Republican Sen. Thom Tillis.
The Republican pressure is coming from the top. President Trump said the young Ukrainian woman’s “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.
“North Carolina, and every State, needs LAW AND ORDER, and only Republicans will deliver it!” the president wrote Tuesday on Truth Social.
Mr. Cooper stood by his record, saying his career as governor and attorney general has been dedicated to “putting violent criminals behind bars and keeping them there.”
He mixed it up on Wednesday with the leading Republican candidate, former Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Whatley, accusing him of seeking to score “political points” and supporting funding cuts to law enforcement.
“It’s time Michael Whatley and the GOP get serious in Washington about funding our law enforcement, and that’s what I’ll do as Senator,” Mr. Cooper wrote on X.
Mr. Whatley was having none of it.
“You put North Carolina police officers in danger when your soft-on-crime policies force them to rearrest the same serial criminals over and over,” he wrote on X.
“The police did their job. You failed to do yours every day of the 39 years you were in office,” Mr. Whatley said.
Two of Mr. Cooper’s decisions in particular have not aged well. In February 2021, he agreed to a deal granting early release to 3,500 inmates to settle a lawsuit brought by civil-rights groups over COVID-19 concerns.
In 2020, he created the Task Force on Racial Equity in Criminal Justice, which pushed policies such as eliminating bail, promoting diversion programs over arrests, and embracing “restorative justice” as part of its goal of “reimagining public safety.”
The National Republican Senatorial Committee debuted an ad Tuesday showing surveillance footage of the brutal Aug. 22 attack on the Charlotte light rail and mug shots of the suspect, 34-year-old Decarlos Dejuna Brown Jr.
“Iryna Zarutska was murdered by a violent criminal who Roy Cooper allowed to roam the streets after 14 arrests,” the NRSC said in a statement. “This tragedy was preventable, but Roy Cooper was too busy focused on DEI and soft-on-crime policies. He is dangerous and wrong for North Carolina.”
Iryna Zarutska was murdered by a violent criminal who Roy Cooper allowed to roam the streets after 14 arrests.
This tragedy was preventable, but Roy Cooper was too busy focused on DEI and soft-on-crime policies.
He is dangerous and wrong for North Carolina. pic.twitter.com/XJBx21lB1c
— Senate Republicans (@NRSC) September 9, 2025
Vice President J.D. Vance jumped into the social media fray, telling Mr. Cooper: “Law enforcement arrested this thug 14 times. It wasn’t law enforcement that failed. It was weak politicians like you who kept letting him out of prison.”
In Charlotte, state Republicans held a press conference on Wednesday to blast Mr. Cooper and Charlotte Mayor Vi Lyles, accusing the Democrats of fostering a culture of lawlessness with catch-and-release policies.
“What the Democrats call restorative justice looks like Iryna Zarutska’s murder,” Mecklenburg County Republican Party Chairman Kyle Kirby said.
The uproar failed to derail Ms. Lyles’ political prospects. She won the Democratic primary for another two-year term as mayor in Tuesday’s balloting with 70.7% of the vote against four challengers.
Ms. Lyles, who has already served four terms as mayor in the Democrat-dominant city, is considered the heavy favorite in the Nov. 4 general election.
Whether Mr. Cooper can continue his winning streak is another question. Before being elected governor in 2016, he served four terms as attorney general and as a state legislator from 1987 to 2001.
David McLennan, professor of political science at Meredith College in Raleigh, said that crime will be a big issue, but probably won’t be decisive.
“I don’t think it will transform the Senate race, since Republican candidates traditionally have the advantage on the crime issue,” said Mr. McLennan, director of the Meredith Poll. “Although Democrats often don’t respond well to Republican attacks on that issue, Roy Cooper is an experienced politician and will likely respond better than most Democrats on that issue and focus on other issues, such as the economy and the danger of having a Republican Senate during the last two years of the Trump presidency.”
The Charlotte stabbing suspect was released in January by Mecklenburg County Magistrate Teresa Stokes on a “written promise” to reappear in court after an arrest for “misuse of the 911 system,” despite his lengthy arrest record for crimes including assault and larceny.
He served five years in prison for robbery with a dangerous weapon and was released in 2020.
House Republicans from North Carolina have called for the dismissal of the magistrate, asking Chief Judge Roy Wiggins of North Carolina Judicial District 26 to initiate proceedings under a state law permitting a magistrate to be removed for cause.
