RALEIGH – News broke earlier this week the Gov. Roy Cooper would be launching his 2020 re-election campaign from…New York City. Well, Republican Lt. Gov. Dan Forest, who just recently announced an exploratory committee for governor, is shaking his head along with the rest of us.

Thursday, just before Cooper’s ‘Cocktails & Conversation’ event in the Big Apple, Forest’s 2020 Exploratory Committee issued the following statement:

“Today Governor Cooper will be in New York City for what his campaign has described as a “re-election campaign kickoff.” In comparison, Lt. Governor Forest kicked off his exploratory committee for Governor earlier this week here in North Carolina.

Whose values does the Governor of North Carolina seek to represent? North Carolina’s or New York City’s.

Governor Cooper has chosen the same place that literally just voted this week, to allow the aborting of babies up until the moment of birth, a standard only practiced in 6 other locations world-wide – mostly communist countries who have no regard for the intrinsic value of life.

As both Governor Cooper and Lt. Governor Forest begin the campaign season, we ask you, the voting public, to consider the narratives cast by each campaign.

Dan Forest’s campaign for Governor will revolve around issues that impact the daily lives of our citizens. Jobs, education, economic development, lowering taxes, increasing personal income, government-efficiency and policies that lead to the well being of the people of our state – uniting our people around a common vision for North Carolina and creating a plan to get there.

However, there is no doubt – none – that the Governor’s New York kickoff today, foreshadows the campaign strategy the Cooper campaign will engage in going forward. In the actual invitation for today’s New York kickoff, the invite references the bathroom controversy of the Governor’s last campaign, as if this debate is still raging.

His invite shows his campaign has the same strategy for 2020.

Just as they did in the last election, the Governor’s campaign will create and market hot button, divisive, “social” issues to drive wedges between the good people of North Carolina, and then claim the other side should not engage in “social” issues.

When this story line is embraced and shared by the media it will cast a dark shadow over the state we all love.

Unfortunately we’ve been here before. This tactic may be effective for his campaign and party, but it is wrong for our state.

As Governor Cooper begins his campaign for re-election today in New York City, with the same harmful narrative of his previous campaign, all that needs to be said is, “here they go again.”

The question is… Why?

We live in the greatest state in America and the people of North Carolina deserve better.”

We certainly do, and we’ll have the opportunity to vote for a better candidate in 2020.