Campaign in person or online? Gov. Cooper and Lt. Gov. Forest differ on that, too
How do you campaign during a pandemic? The candidates for North Carolina governor are using two very different tactics to reach voters.
Now even each other’s campaign methods have become fodder for campaign attacks.
North Carolina will end up spending almost its entire summer in Phase Two of Gov. Roy Cooper’s reopening plan. That means gatherings are limited to 10 people inside or 25 people outside, bars are closed, restaurant seating is at half capacity and alcohol sales end at 11 p.m. Though 2020 has become a shutdown summer in North Carolina and the rest of the country, it is still an election year. And it is still campaign season.
Cooper, a Democrat, is running for reelection. His opponent is Republican Lt. Gov. Dan Forest, who has criticized Cooper’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic, including the restrictions and mask mandate. Forest has held several in-person campaign events, with larger crowd sizes and without masks, defying the governor’s executive orders. However, Forest has claimed a First Amendment exemption to the orders.
The Cooper campaign put out a video this week about Forest’s in-person campaign events, calling him a risk.
“We will not hold in person campaign events and we don’t recommend that, particularly when people aren’t wearing masks and when they aren’t social distancing,” Cooper told reporters Wednesday.
Cooper also told The Associated Press he hopes Forest “will see the light and stop this.”
“There is question about whether these kinds of events would have First Amendment protections, but I think the Department of Health and Human Services would tell anyone that if you’re having these kinds of gatherings, that you risk spread of the virus, particularly if you don’t wear masks and don’t social distance,” Cooper told reporters.
Cooper’s executive orders have an exemption for First Amendment activities, which some have interpreted to include the ReOpen NC protests earlier this summer and the weeks of Black Lives Matter protests after the killing of George Floyd by a police officer in Minnesota. Forest did not attend a ReOpen protest, according to his campaign, but met with ReOpen supporters.
Cooper walked through a demonstration outside the governor’s mansion during the Black Lives Matter protests. Forest campaign spokesperson Andrew Dunn told the AP that protest, where Cooper had his mask pulled aside to leave his face uncovered, was bigger than any of the Forest campaign events Cooper has criticized. Dunn has not responded to a call and email from The News & Observer.
Every candidate needs to campaign in their own way, Republican Governors Association spokesperson Amelia Chassé Alcivar said.
“Both Republicans and Democrats running in North Carolina and across the country are finding ways to engage with voters in this new normal,” Chassé Alcivar told The N&O in a phone interview.
Cooper holding virtual events only and not taking direct questions from voters is “undemocratic,” she said.
“While every campaign is figuring out how to operate under COVID-19 concerns and restrictions, it’s unacceptable to not campaign at all and not take questions and share your vision with voters,” she said.
In a statement, Cooper spokesperson Liz Doherty called Forest “too dangerous for North Carolina as he continues to spread misinformation about the virus and prioritize his campaign over the health and safety of North Carolinians. We can’t risk him being governor.”
Democratic Governors Association spokesperson Jerusalem Demsas said that during a crisis, “our leaders are responsible for modeling good behavior, even if it puts their political futures at risk.”
Demsas criticized Forest for missing state Board of Education meetings and trying to “shake as many hands as he can as he holds unmasked, superspreader events. That’s unacceptable.”
Republicans’, Democrats’ approach
Tim Wigginton, spokesperson for the North Carolina Republican Party, said the group encourages candidates and supporters to wear masks and practice social distancing at any in-person events.
“We always defer to the health experts, because we’re not doctors,” Wigginton said in a phone interview with The N&O. The NCGOP sells masks with a President Donald Trump logo, he said, and Forest sells masks, too. Wigginton wears a mask, he said.
Wigginton said the party is encouraging smaller gatherings if in-person as well as virtual events for candidates, depending on what the candidate wants to do.
“There are going to be people who don’t have good internet access, who aren’t digitally literate. And their votes matter, too,” he said. So in-person events allow candidates to talk to people directly and still take coronavirus safety precautions.
He said they encourage people to make their own decisions and take personal responsibility.
The North Carolina Democratic Party is not holding in-person events, spokesperson Austin Cook said Thursday, because they are “adhering to public health guidance.”
“I think for campaigns to hold in person events right now is reckless and dangerous,” Cook said in a phone interview with The News & Observer. He said no Democrats have come to the state’s party senior staff asking about in-person events.
“It’s just not even a consideration for us at this point,” he said. So instead they’re doing phone banks, digital door knocking and email for the time being.
“It’s not easy for anybody right now. It would be easier for both parties if we could revert to the usual way of campaigning,” Cook said.
The NCDP wants to adhere pretty closely to guidance from Cooper and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, he said.
“Is it ideal? No. But again, that’s the just world we’re living in right now,” he said.
Coronavirus as a campaign issue
The pandemic has given Cooper new visibility to the public, even as Republicans have criticized his orders for keeping some businesses shut down. Cooper says measures of the virus’s spread have stabilized but not dropped enough to allow for more reopening.
This week, the Republican Governors Association released its first video promoting Forest for governor. It features him talking about the economy and school choice. Forest has criticized state and local school plans for not doing enough to reopen public schools.
“This is America. We can do two things at once. We can protect lives and livelihoods at the same time,” Forest says in the video.
Jarvis Hall, a political science professor at N.C. Central University in Durham, said that as a political strategy, Forest has to distinguish himself from Cooper, the person he wants to displace.
Hall said that coronavirus response and protests could factor into how unaffiliated voters vote.
“When it comes to actually casting a vote, economic reasons tend to govern that more than these other things,” he said. So the impact of coronavirus on both health and the economy could be factors.
“If this pandemic is still with us [in November], if we have a second surge or spike ... it’s going to be on [Cooper’s] watch,” Hall said.
For more North Carolina government and politics news, listen to the Domecast politics podcast from The News & Observer and the NC Insider. You can find it on Megaphone, Apple Podcasts, iHeartRadio, Stitcher or wherever you get your podcasts.
This story was originally published August 7, 2020 at 2:02 PM.
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