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A Project of The Annenberg Public Policy Center

Misleading GOP Attacks Over Taxes on Tips, Overtime, Social Security

Misleading GOP Attacks Over Taxes on Tips, Overtime, Social Security

In congressional races around the country, Democrats find themselves under attack in political ads for allegedly opposing the popular tax cuts for tips, overtime and older Americans that were part of Republicans’ One Big Beautiful Bill Act. Many of the candidates themselves say they support those particular provisions.

Republican Ad Attacks Cooper with Misleading Claim About Rape Kits

Republican Ad Attacks Cooper with Misleading Claim About Rape Kits

A Republican super PAC has been running an ad that makes the misleading claim that North Carolina Senate candidate Roy Cooper “let 16,000 untested rape kits sit on the shelf” when he was the state’s attorney general. The evidence kits were in the custody of hundreds of local law enforcement agencies and were never submitted for testing by the state crime laboratory that Cooper oversaw as attorney general.

Ad Attacking N.C. Republican Senate Candidate Uses His Own (Dated) Words Against Him

Ad Attacking N.C. Republican Senate Candidate Uses His Own (Dated) Words Against Him

In his campaign’s latest TV ad, Democratic Senate candidate Roy Cooper of North Carolina highlights the issue of affordability using direct quotes from his Republican opponent. They are, in fact, direct quotes from Michael Whatley — but they are a bit dated, and some of the comments were more defensible or true at the time when Whatley made them.

Ad Attacking Cooper Makes False Connection to Murder

Ad Attacking Cooper Makes False Connection to Murder

An ad from a super PAC supporting Republican Senate candidate Michael Whatley features a heart-wrenching testimonial from the father of a woman who was murdered in 2025. The ad falsely implies the accused murderer was one of the prisoners released during the COVID-19 pandemic when Whatley’s Democratic opponent, Roy Cooper, was governor of North Carolina. Cooper had nothing to do with the accused murderer’s release.