The man at the center of a prominent attack ad against U.S. Senate candidate Roy Cooper is saying that a conservative organization tricked him into appearing in the commercial. The North Carolina man, who lost his son to gun violence, is attempting to set the record straight after he says he was unwillingly placed in the middle of one of the most high-profile congressional races in the country this year.
Conservative organization falsely ties Democratic Senate candidate to murders
North Carolina’s Donald Hayes told NC Newsline that he was “swindled into an ad that was about politics, which I don’t want to be about.” Hayes is referring to a 30-second political ad by the conservative Senate Leadership Fund that attacks Roy Cooper, the former governor of North Carolina who is now running against Republican Michael Whatley to represent the state in the U.S. Senate. The advertisement features Hayes describing the details of his son Shemar’s 2024 murder and talking critically about Cooper. Hayes says in the video “as the governor, Mr. Cooper was allowing these criminals back on the streets. You’re giving them a second chance to go out in the street and do the same thing over and over again.” The video cuts between the interview with Hayes, dramatized videos depicting crime, and images of Cooper overlaid with text, including a newspaper quote from 2021 that said Cooper was going “to release 3500 state prison inmates early.”
The ad has been condemned as misleading, giving the false impression that Cooper gave an early prison release to the person who killed Shemar Hayes. However, The NC Beat examined court documents relating to the case and determined “actual killer, Tyzavian Smith, was an 18-year-old with no prior record, was never in prison, and was never ‘released’ by anyone.” Smith, who ultimately entered a guilty plea for second degree murder in the case, had little to no adult criminal record at the time of the murder. “The ad is pure political theater built on a lie of omission,” The NC Beat concluded. The Senate Leadership Fund has also been criticized for a second ad implying that the prison release led to the murder of North Carolina woman Logan Frederico, when in reality the murder was committed in South Carolina by a South Carolina man with no connection to the North Carolina prison system. Both ads also omit that the 2021 early prison release was actually opposed by Cooper but was required by a settlement of a lawsuit seeking to release prisoners early due to the dangers of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Hayes faults ‘conniving’ organization for misleading ad
For his part, Hayes claims that he never intended his words or the story of his son’s murder to become part of the Senate race. “The commercial looks as if I’m trying to sway North Carolinians from voting the way that they want to vote, and that wasn’t my agenda,” Hayes told NC Newsline. “I wanted to let the community know about gun violence and about my son being murdered.” Hayes says that he called Senate Leadership Fund once he saw the ad and that “I told them that I felt that this was deceiving, it was conniving and it was sneaky how they used me and my family to get out their word.” Hayes says that he plans to reach out to Cooper to clarify that he did not intend his words to be used in an attack ad against the former governor, who Hayes says he has previously voted for.
The controversy over the misleading ads against Cooper comes as the former governor is locked in one of the most high-profile Senate races in the country. Cooper, a popular Democrat in an important swing state, was seen by many as the party’s best chance to flip the U.S. Senate seat currently held by Republican Thom Tillis after the GOP Senator announced that he would be retiring. Cooper and his Republican opponent, Trump-endorsed candidate Michael Whatley, each cruised to victory in their party’s respective primaries in March. Winning North Carolina will be key to Democrats’ uphill battle to regain control of the Senate, while Republicans hope to hold onto the Senate even as it appears likely that they will lose control of the House of Representatives to Democrats. Recent polls show Cooper leading the race against Whatley, who is a former Chair of the Republican National Committee, though the race appears to have tightened in recent weeks. The high-stakes nature of the race has allowed Cooper and Whatley to each raise millions of dollars in campaign funds, while various political action committees have pledged tens of millions of dollars toward the race, including $71 million from the Senate Leadership Fund in support of Whatley.
Given the importance of North Carolina’s Senate race for control of Congress, it is not surprising that so much money and attention are pouring into the state. Nor is it surprising that attack ads and misinformation are being used to attempt to sway voters. But for one North Carolina father who is mourning his son and attempting to prevent others from dying because of gun violence, his family’s tragedy is being misused by a conservative political organization engaging in underhanded methods to influence the election.