WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW
  • Roy Cooper’s legal team threatened the North State Journal after it asked about his health and ability to serve a full Senate term.
  • The newspaper reported the threat, fueling more speculation and drawing criticism from George Washington Law School Professor Jonathan Turley.
  • Vice President J.D. Vance mocked Cooper’s legal response and attacked his record during a campaign appearance in Hendersonville.
  • Vance announced another $858 million for continued Hurricane Helene efforts in western North Carolina.

The North Carolina Senate campaign has taken a sharp turn after a legal threat from Democrat nominee Roy Cooper's legal team spectacularly backfired. Instead of silencing questions about Cooper's health and age, the move fueled wider scrutiny during the closing stretch of the race.

Attorneys from the Elias Law Group, based in D.C. and founded by Democrat lawyer Marc Elias, sent a cease and desist letter to the North State Journal. The letter arrived within five hours of the newspaper making a standard inquiry about Cooper.

The inquiry concerned the 69-year-old candidate's health and whether he could serve a full six-year Senate term. Cooper's lawyers did not respond quietly, choosing instead to warn the statewide newspaper against publishing the claims under consideration.

The firm wrote, "Let us make this exceedingly simple and crystal clear to you: Governor Cooper intends to complete his entire term, and any suggestion that he is 'experiencing a neurological issue,' or that any health condition would prevent him from completing his term, is categorically false and defamatory ."

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The lawyers also warned that the newspaper would be sued if it published "these falsehoods in its plain pursuit of online clicks and a political hatchet job." That aggressive response quickly became a story of its own.

The North State Journal subsequently reported on the legal threat, prompting more speculation about Cooper's health rather than less. The effort to shut down the issue instead provided it with considerably more attention.

George Washington Law School Professor Jonathan Turley also criticized the legal threat. He said it appeared to be "entirely meritless" and described it as "a smash-mouth approach that only generated national coverage of the issue — working against the interests of his client."

That national attention has now reached Vice President J.D. Vance. During a Monday visit to Hendersonville, North Carolina, Vance promoted NC-11 nominee Jennifer Balkcom and Republican Senate nominee Michael Whatley.

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Vance used the appearance to hammer Cooper's record as governor before turning directly to the questions surrounding Cooper's age. "Now, Roy Cooper, he was a terrible governor. He did all sorts of crazy things like veto the Parents Bill of Rights."

Vance continued, "He released thousands of violent criminals from jail early. And he used your taxpayer dollars to fund sex change surgeries for children."

He also said, "He vetoed legislation to keep boys out of girls' sports - completely unhinged stuff, and Roy Cooper did it. But I hope my saying so doesn't bother Roy, because I heard that he's actually a very sensitive guy."

The vice president then went straight after the legal response that had already drawn scrutiny. "He's literally sending lawyers after anyone who asks about his age. Is that right, Michael?"

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Vance followed with the questions Cooper's legal strategy had failed to bury. "Which raises a good question: what does Roy Cooper have to hide? Or is he just worried that he'll look even older than he is already next to the young communists of the Democrat Party he'll be voting with if he goes to Washington?"

Vance also attacked Cooper's attempt to present himself as a moderate during the campaign. He argued that politicians routinely make such appeals before reaching Washington and abandoning the voters who put them there.

"It's time for us to say once and for all that we're not going to put up for the politicians who tell you they're moderates on the campaign trail, but then they immediately get to Washington, D.C., and they stab you in the back. They stab you in the back by defunding the police; they stab you in the back by raising your taxes; they stab you in the back by putting boys in girls' sports."

During the Hendersonville appearance, Vance also announced another $858 million in funding for continued Hurricane Helene efforts in western North Carolina. President Trump was expected in Greenville, North Carolina, later Tuesday for his second campaign stop in the state in a little more than two months.

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