The GOP Attack Ad Blaming Roy Cooper for a Murder He Had Nothing To Do With

Logan Federico was killed entirely within South Carolina's jurisdiction — she was visiting friends in Columbia when Alexander Dickey, a man with nearly 40 prior charges and about a dozen arrests, broke into the home ^[3][4]. Dickey had received a shortened 2023 sentence because South Carolina prosecutors didn't know about a 2014 burglary conviction: the state's own law enforcement agency, SLED, never received his fingerprints from that arrest ^[1]. Dickey was released from a South Carolina jail under Republican Governor Henry McMaster's administration — not from any North Carolina facility, and not on Roy Cooper's watch ^[3][4]. Federico's only tie to North Carolina was that she was born in Waxhaw ^[3].

Cooper's 3,500-prisoner figure is real, but it describes a completely different event: a February 2021 settlement of a federal lawsuit the ACLU and NAACP filed against North Carolina over COVID-19 conditions in state prisons ^[1]. Cooper's administration fought the release in court and only settled after a judge ruled the plaintiffs were likely to win, worried that proceeding to trial risked an even larger court-ordered release ^[1]. More than 90% of those 3,500 people would have been released by the end of 2021 regardless of the settlement, and at least seven of the 18 people in the ad's "murderers" tally were already free before it took effect ^[1].

The ad posted to X on August 19 quickly drew both amplification and backlash ^[4]. North Carolina voters were among the first to flag the geography error, with replies calling it a "straight up lie" that "didn't happen in NC" ^[4]. Senate Majority PAC, which backs Democrats, issued a rebuttal noting flatly that "Logan Federico was murdered in South Carolina. Her killer was released from a South Carolina jail after racking up charges in South Carolina" ^[3]. Democratic pollster John Anzalone called it "the most egregious ad of the cycle" ^[3].

Raleigh-based PolitiFact NC fact-checker Andy Specht publicly questioned why SLF would link a South Carolina victim to a North Carolina candidate ^[3]. A Carolina Journal poll taken a week before the ad aired showed Cooper leading Whatley 51.5% to 39% among likely voters, with only about 11% naming crime as a top issue ^[2].

The ad's factual anchor — that 3,500 people were released early from North Carolina prisons under Cooper — is true ^[1]. But the ad's central implication, that this release is connected to Logan Federico's death, is false: the killer was never in North Carolina custody, was released under a different governor in a different state, and Cooper's release was a court-driven pandemic settlement rather than a discretionary act tied to violent crime ^[1][3].

Mebro rates this claim MISLEADING: real numbers, wrong murder. The ad uses an authentic statistic to manufacture a causal link across state lines and administrations that does not exist ^[1][4].