Senate Leadership Fund ad against Roy Cooper allegedly tricked grieving father Case A Republican-aligned super PAC (Senate Leadership Fund) produced a widely-viewed attack ad against U.S. Senate candidate Roy Cooper by interviewing a grieving father, Ronald Hayes, under the stated pretense of an independent anti-gun-violence project, then editing his comments into a political attack the father says misrepresents his views and the facts — he supports Cooper and has publicly said he was misled, while SLF maintains it was transparent with him and stands by the ad. Senate Leadership Fund ad and Ronald Hayes' account Ronald (also reported as 'Donald') Hayes' 23-year-old son Shemar was murdered in Charlotte, NC in March 2024; the killer, Tyzavian Smith, was 18 at the time with no prior adult record and pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in 2025. Hayes says Senate Leadership Fund (SLF, the super PAC of Senate Republicans) operatives told him they were an 'independent' group making an ad about gun violence, and interviewed him about his son's death before asking him to speak as if addressing then-Gov. Cooper directly. The resulting 30-second ad, released around Aug. 5, 2026, has Hayes saying 'As the governor, Mr. Cooper was allowing these criminals back on the streets... Is my son going to get a second chance? No, he's never coming back' — tying his son's murder to a COVID-era settlement Cooper reached with the ACLU to release some inmates early. Hayes says this framing misrepresents what he actually said and that the footage was 'cut and manipulated.' PolitiFact/WRAL and a NC Department of Adult Correction spokesperson found no record connecting that settlement to Shemar's killer, who was a minor and not in custody at the time of the settlement. Hayes says he is a registered Democrat, supports Cooper, and would not have knowingly appeared in a Republican attack ad; he says he called SLF after seeing the finished ad to object, but they maintained they were 'independent' and refused to remove it. The ad has been viewed over 25–26 million times on YouTube as part of a reported $17 million SLF ad campaign against Cooper (per NC Newsline), with AdImpact data showing over $6 million spent airing this specific ad. Popular Information reports SLF operatives filmed at least two other interviews with members of the same grieving-parents group, similarly redirecting personal-tragedy conversations toward attacks on Cooper, though those interviews were not turned into ads. A second, separate SLF ad used a different grieving father (Mr. Federico), whose daughter was killed in South Carolina by an offender with no tie to Cooper or North Carolina policy — that father says he understood the ad's purpose and stands by it. Note SLF says it dealt with Hayes openly and has shared their text messages, and a second father in a related ad stands by it. Sources [1] AdImpact via Popular Information (https://popular.info/p/how-a-gop-super-pac-tricked-a-grieving) [2] WFAE (https://www.wfae.org/politics/2026-09-09/a-closer-look-at-those-cooper-attack-ads-featuring-grieving-fathers) [3] PolitiFact/WRAL via Uprise RI (https://upriseri.com/article/a-grieving-father-a-super-pac-and-the-ad-he-never-meant-to-make) [4] Raw Story (https://www.rawstory.com/gop-ad/) [5] Popular Information (https://popular.info/p/how-a-gop-super-pac-tricked-a-grieving) [6] Progress NC Action (https://progressncaction.org/2026/09/gop-super-pac-hits-new-low-in-senate-race/) [7] Mediaite (https://www.mediaite.com/politics/murder-victims-dad-accuses-gop-senate-candidate-of-tricking-him-into-attack-ad-says-hes-voting-for-the-democrat/) [8] NC Newsline (https://ncnewsline.com/2026/08/31/nc-father-at-center-of-us-senate-ad-says-he-was-swindled-by-gop-political-operatives/) Connections Same actor — Senate Leadership Fund: Republican-only super PAC funding structure The organization behind the disputed Hayes ad, with its funding structure and scale of spending documented here.