Fact Check: Political claims

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Did Republican 2nd District Congressman George Holding break a promise not to accept special-interest PAC money?

Does a 2017 music video mean Democratic legislative candidate Sam Searcy disrespects women?

Does Triangle congressional candidate Linda Coleman support sanctuary cities?

Civitas President Francis De Luca says data suggests there are questions about "tens of thousands" of those who voted in the 2016 election.

When North Carolina public schools release their annual reading scores, parents, teachers and the public are no doubt interested to see how students are performing. But are prison officials also paying attention to that information?

The final gubernatorial debate for 2016 proved to to be a hot one, but what's true and what's exaggerated?

A direct mail ad from a N.C. Families First claims Rep. Gary Pendleton, R-Wake, gave us House Bill 2. But the Wake County lawmaker didn't vote on the bill, so how does the group support that claim?

A candidate in the attorney general's race says his opponent has backed 13 laws struck down by the courts. Is that number right?

A campaign ad by Gov. Pat McCrory claims that Attorney General Roy Cooper "fought" efforts to clean up coal ash.

A Republican Governors Association ad suggests that Democratic Attorney General Roy Cooper was "stripped" of his control of the state's crime lab. But his agency still oversees the lab.

Attorney General Roy Cooper says his administration "cleared the backlog" at the North Carolina State Crime Lab. But the crime lab has continued to struggle with caseloads throughout his tenure.

Legislative candidates and Gov. Pat McCrory have been touting teacher salary increases in their campaign ads. But is it true that the average North Carolina teacher makes $50,000?

Does the newly enacted law setting statewide limits on public sector nondiscrimination policies threaten federal education funding? The answer rests with a federal appeals court.

Gov. Pat McCrory says the media is missing the boat on HB2. But does he have all his facts straights on the law crafted to respond to Charlotte's transgender nondiscrimination ordinance?

A presidential candidate and a state lawmaker have claimed there are more IRS agents than there are FBI and CIA agents combined. It doesn't take too much cloak-and-dagger work to find this claim questionable.

North Carolina Republican Party leaders used a news conference outside a voting rights trial in Winston-Salem Monday morning to point to documents they say show national union groups are bankrolling the "Moral Monday" groups.

Do "total dollars spent in education" really tell all, or should state leaders look at per-pupil spending and constant dollars when debating the budget.

Reps. Skip Stam and Grier Martin debated the proposals from Gov. Pat McCrory's State of the State speech in this week's "On the Record." We fact check a couple claims.

Gov. Pat McCrory said that 40 percent of the money North Carolina spends on workers compensation claims for state employees is related to fraud and abuse. Lawyers, union officials and academics question that figure.

Gov. Pat McCrory told an annual economic forecast forum that "all the other states now have followed our lead" on cutting unemployment benefits. Have they?

A fact sheet distributed by Duke downplays the risks of exposure to coal ash, a material that contains toxins like arsenic and lead. Experts in the field caution the sheet is misleading.

Fact-checkers gathered near Washington, D.C., this week to compare notes on the expensive 2014 elections and got an earful from a few of those whose work was criticized.

Gov. Pat McCrory says, "North Carolina has now recovered all of the jobs lost during the recession." That's right, but is it really good news?

U.S. Senate candidate Thom Tillis says the legislature and governor should now consider expanding Medicaid in North Carolina. During the Republican primary, he emphasized legislation blocking expansion.

Democrats and environmental groups say state House Speaker Thom Tillis and other Republicans have forced voters to pay for the coal ash spill. That claim ignores important parts of this summer's coal ash bill.

Republicans are hammering incumbent Democratic U.S. Sen. Kay Hagan with the fact her husband's company landed stimulus grants after she voted for the bill. Hagan says it is Republican Thom Tillis who has conflict of interest problems.

State House Speaker Thom Tillis says "60 percent of the people of North Carolina" backed the constitutional amendment defining marriage. That's not quite right.

Democratic U.S. Sen. Kay Hagan and Republican challenger Thom Tillis squared off in the second of three scheduled debates Tuesday night, and just as with their first encounter, the pair kept fact-checkers busy.

As the second U.S. Senate debate approaches, use @NCCapitol's searchable database to fact-check the candidates.

Gov. Pat McCrory says the state has "got enough psychologists" when reports by national and state health agencies suggest otherwise.

The state Republican Party is attacking Sen. Gene McLaurin, a Democrat, for backing an immigration bill that was sponsored and supported by top Republican leaders.

A new ad by Carolina Rising features parents who praise state House Speaker Thom Tillis' work on autism in the General Assembly. Tillis backed a bill that cleared the House but never got out of the Senate.

A new ad from Senate Majority PAC says Thom Tillis is "sticking it" to young people, making them pay more to repay college loans. The new spot references the Republican state House speaker's opposition to legislation defeated in the U.S. Senate this summer.

Democratic U.S. Sen. Kay Hagan and Republican challenger Thom Tillis squared off in a Senate debate Wednesday night. We're fact-checking some of their most ear-catching claims.

You may hear some claims during the U.S. Senate debate that sound familiar. Here are some past fact checks from @NCCapitol and other sources that may shed light on claims made by U.S. Sen. Kay Hagan and Republican challenger Thom Tillis.

In recent campaign ads, Republican U.S. Senate candidate Thom Tillis has said he was a partner at IBM. Several readers have submitted questions asking whether Tillis really could have held this title at the technology giant or if he's inflating his credentials.

Democrats have been running ads saying that House Speaker Thom Tillis cut education by $500 million. The claim is, at best, incomplete, and the commercials conflate two different categories of education spending.

U.S. Senate candidate Thom Tillis is touting a teacher pay raise in a new campaign ad. Voters should approach claims around this raise with caution.

Republican challenger Thom Tillis and conservative independent groups have tied U.S. Sen. Kay Hagan, a Democrat running for re-election, to an unpopular president by saying she backs Barack Obama 95 or 96 percent of the time.

Several ads aired by Democratic groups have claimed that state House Speaker Thom Tillis, the Republican U.S. Senate candidate, engineered tax breaks for the owners of boats and planes. This claim is not exactly seaworthy.

In a recent interview, Republican U.S. Senate candidate Thom Tillis says he would not have supported the 2013 government shutdown. But in statements from the time, Tillis urged Republicans to "stand on our principles." Can both statements square up?

An environmental advocacy group is airing a commercial accusing state House Speaker and Republican Senate candidate Thom Tillis of caving to polluters. Tillis countered by accusing Sen. Kay Hagan, the Democrat he hopes to unseat, of having a "dismal" record on coal ash. Can either candidate claim the high ground with regard to one of North Carolina's biggest environmental calamities?

An industry-funded nonprofit says U.S. Sen. Kay Hagan favors imposing a "carbon tax" on fuel sources like gas and coal. But the group doesn't have a carbon-emitting gun to back up their claim.

Are Russians taking an interest in a North Carolina state Senate campaign? In a fundraising email earlier this week, Sen. Chad Barefoot said "environmentalists are on the attack again - and this time, Russia is in the mix." Our fact check goes international.

Opponents of a measure that is on its way to Gov. Pat McCrory says it breaks a promise not to open the state to natural gas drilling until the General Assembly had a chance to review the rules. So is a promise a promise?

An ad by Americans for Prosperity claims Republicans should get credit for putting more people to work "than any time in our history." Do those numbers add up?

A pair of Senate Majority PAC ads claim that a plan favored by state House Speaker Thom Tillis "raised taxes on 80 percent of North Carolinians." We give this claim a red light, but don't think that will stop it from showing up in more commercials in the U.S. Senate campaign.

One of the state's top economic recruiters says North Carolina loses big business deals because of the state's public records law.

Supreme Court Justice Robin Hudson says she's being unfairly tarred as sympathetic to child molesters in a new attack ad funded by business groups.

No separation of church and state? And are we advertising federal benefits in Mexico? WRAL News fact-checks the statements made during Wednesday night's GOP Senate debate.

An ad by the 60 Plus Association suggests that pension funds could be hurt by a bill that would wind down two federally-backed mortgage giants. One of our experts calls this "fear mongering."

A commercial by the Natural Resources Defense Council labels three state senators "The Fracking Crew." That so-called crew could be a lot larger based on the vote.

The Natural Resources Defense Council recently aired ads accusing Gov. Pat McCrory of "having coal ash on his hands" with regard to the Feb. 2 spill in the Dan River.

The Democratic allied group MoveOn says "McCrorycare" is depriving North Carolinians of health insurance. Is it fair to single out Gov. Pat McCrory?

Patriot Majority USA, a nonprofit allied with Democrats, criticizes state House Speaker and Republican U.S. Senate front-runner Thom Tillis on health care based on his opposition to the Affordable Care Act. But does supporting the law's repeal equate to denying coverage for pre-existing conditions?

Gov. McCrory claimed that people were moving to North Carolina for unemployment benefits. Economic data and the state's unemployment insurance rules indicate that's false.

A review of a second ad from Americans for Prosperity finds no outright falsehoods but some missing context in its arguments against President Barack Obama, the Affordable Care Act and Democratic U.S. Sen. Kay Hagan.

Americans for Prosperity's ad attacking Sen. Kay Hagan for her support of the Affordable Care Act repeats a previously debunked assertion.

Fact check 2012

Candidates in the 7th Congressional District accuse each other of distorting records related to immigration policy, tax policy and health care.

North Carolina's leading candidates for governor strayed from the strictly factual during their recent appearances on WRAL's "On the Record."

The Democratic candidate for governor tells viewers they should hold his Republican rival responsible for cuts to education and stretches what we know about Pat McCrory's tax plans.

It's no surprise that Medicare and health care spending overall have been a topic in both the presidential campaign trail and in Congressional campaigns like the one being waged in North Carolina's 7th District.

Pat McCrory, Republican candidate for governor, says he lowered taxes, helped lower Charlotte crime rate and create jobs during his tenure. Do those claims hold up?

N.C. Citizens for Progress's latest ad says the GOP candidate for governor hasn't released his tax returns. Is that unusual?

Republican lawmakers circulated a chart Friday showing four years of state spending on education. It leaves out hundreds of millions of dollars.

Violent crime has dropped since North Carolina has allowed citizens to obtain concealed weapons permits. However, that drop in crime is part of a national trend, and there's not good evidence that expanding concealed weapons laws has contributed to that drop in crime.

Gov. Bev Perdue's says there are "less dollars" for public education in the House budget proposal than last year. Strictly speaking, this isn't true but it's not totally wrong either.

In a second ad, North Carolina Citizens for Progress suggest Pat McCrory had a conflict working both as mayor of Charlotte and an executive for Duke Energy.

The Republican Governors Association has updated its on-air attack on Democrat Lt. Gov. Walter Dalton in the race for North Carolina governor against Republican Pat McCrory. The new ad, part of an $850,000-plus, three-week ad purchase, again closely links Dalton with outgoing Democratic governor Bev Perdue. The claim is valid.

While the individual components of a new attacking Pat McCrory are true, how they are put together creates a misleading impression for viewers.

FACT CHECK: An ad paid for by the Republican Governor's Association claims a sales tax increase would cost 8,000 jobs. Where does that number come from? And is Walter Dalton really "Bev Perdue's right-hand man?"

Lt. Gov. Walter Dalton, Rep. Bill Faison and former Congressman Bob Etheridge threw out a lot of numbers and assertions during their debate on WRAL-TV Monday. Here's how their claims line up with the facts.

A new 30-second spot accuses Paul Coble of supporting debt increases as a commissioner. Is that accurate?

Like a good photograph, television political ads tell a story - about the candidates seeking office, their supporters, their opponents, the campaigns and the political process.