CHARLOTTE — One of the key issues in the 2026 US Senate race so far has been the COVID-19 era settlement that resulted in the early release of thousands of prisoners in North Carolina.
Republican US Senate candidate Michael Whatley has criticized Cooper over the settlement. This type of lawsuit was not just filed against North Carolina. While each court is different, Democratic governors in Colorado and Illinois reached deals that didn’t result in a mass release of prisoners.
At a campaign event in Gastonia Thursday, Whatley cited the two governors and said Cooper should have fought harder against the settlement.
“There were plenty of governors, including J.B. Pritzker in Illinois and Jared Polis in Colorado, Democrats who did not settle the way that Roy Cooper settled,” Whatley said. “He absolutely could have kept those prisoners behind bars where they belong.”
In Colorado, the ACLU filed a lawsuit seeking the early release of “medically vulnerable prisoners.” Governor Polis signed an executive order in March 2020 that allowed around 300 inmates to be released early. But after six months, he allowed the order to expire.
According to the Denver Post, in May 2020, he said the pandemic was “no excuse to let criminals out.” The trial court ultimately dismissed the lawsuit against Polis, finding “it was not within its power to declare the Governor’s alleged failure to act unconstitutional.”
In Illinois, Governor JB Pritzker was sued in a similar manner. Under a settlement, the Illinois Department of Corrections agreed to identify and evaluate medically vulnerable prisoners. According to the Chicago Sun Times, the settlement led to the release of 1,000 prisoners. The 2021 settlement did not specify how many had to be released
“I would have made sure that people had, you know, COVID shots. I would have made sure that you know people had masks. I would have made sure that you had proper quarantine. Things along those lines,” Whatley said. “It is the single most catastrophic decision, the single most disastrous decision that any governor has ever made in the history of North Carolina.”
In his campaign stop in Gastonia Thursday, Cooper dismissed comments that he should have fought the settlement harder. He said, unlike Whatley, he has prosecuted violent crime.
“This was court-ordered, and I fought against the releases. And you have to remember that Whatley encouraged the releases,” Cooper said, referencing Channel 9’s previous reporting that found in 2020, Whatley and NCGOP were calling on Cooper to do more to protect inmates from COVID.
“I’m the only one in this race who’s actually prosecuted violent criminals and worked to keep them behind bars,” said Whatley.
Whatley has also denied advocating for early COVID releases.
US Attorney Bill Barr encouraged federal prisons to release vulnerable inmates at several prisons that were encouraging outbreaks at the time
Republican governors also took similar action that led to the early release of prisoners due to Covid-19. This includes Arkansas, Iowa and Tennessee, although the number of prisoners released is below North Carolina’s settlement list.
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