Senate Leadership Fund targets Cooper in new ad

The Republican-supporting Senate Leadership Fund has released a new ad targeting Democratic candidate Roy Cooper’s record on crime during his tenure as North Carolina’s governor.

The ad released Aug. 20 features Stephen Frederico, the father of Logan Frederico, a 22-year-old woman from Waxhaw who was murdered while visiting friends in Columbia, South Carolina, in 2025. 

Stephen Frederico recently expressed his support for Michael Whatley, the former chairman of the Republican National Committee and NCGOP. Whatley is running against Cooper for North Carolina’s open US Senate seat, currently held by Sen. Thom Tillis, who is not running for re-election.

“Logan was a casualty of an agenda,” Stephen Frederico said in the ad. “40 years of Roy Cooper is enough.” 

SLF has spent more than $354 millionsupporting Republican candidates across the Senate, according to a press release. 

“Groups like SLF keep hammering Gov. Cooper on his agreement to release 3,500 prisoners early because their research has shown it to be Cooper’s greatest vulnerability,” Andy Jackson, director of the Civitas Center for Public Integrity at the John Locke Foundation, told Carolina Journal. “Likewise, based on the attack ads we have seen, Whatley’s greatest vulnerability is that he hired a former sex offender to do fundraising. The fact that both sides continue to pour money into the race is a sign that neither side believes Cooper has this locked up, despite the polls showing him ahead.”

SLF and its affiliated groups have raised a record $500 million ahead of the 2026 elections, surpassing the fundraising total of any previous Senate-focused political effort. The group attributed the fundraising haul to support from donors and to Senate Republicans’ record under Majority Leader US Rep. John Thune, R-South Dakota.

The fundraising has allowed SLF and its affiliated organizations to begin advertising earlier than in previous election cycles as they work to support Republican Senate candidates and maintain or expand the party’s majority. The group is already running advertisements in several key Senate battlegrounds, including Alaska, Iowa, Maine, Michigan, and North Carolina.

“Thanks to Leader John Thune and our generous investors, Senate Leadership Fund and its affiliated groups have raised more resources than any other Senate effort in history,” SLF Executive Director Alex Latcham said in a statement to Fox News Digital. “However, we cannot slow down, as [Senate Democratic leader] Chuck Schumer and radical Democrats seek to take our nation back.” 

On July 29, SLF announced a $17 million investment, the first round of a total of $71 million invested to elect Whatley.

In the latest Carolina Journal Poll, released on Aug. 13 and based on a survey of 600 likely North Carolina voters, participants were asked which two issues were most important to them in the 2026 election. Only 10.9% of voters cited crime and public safety, down from 11.9% in the May CJ Poll. The August poll also shows Cooper now holding a 12.5-point lead over Whatley, with Cooper at 51.5% and Whatley at 39%. The poll has a ±4% margin of error. Cooper’s lead is up from 11.1 points in May. 

“Senate Leadership Fund targets Cooper in new ad” was originally published on www.carolinajournal.com.