'Didn’t even take out the donkey': North Carolina GOP busted for ripping off Dem graphic

The North Carolina GOP shared a graphic on social media Monday urging voters to back Republicans, but the state's Democratic Party quickly pointed out it looked nearly identical to one they had posted days earlier.

“Happy Monday. Vote Republican,” reads a post from the North Carolina GOP’s account on X, alongside a graphic that suggests voting Republican would improve things like health care, gas and grocery prices, and improve privacy protections and schools.

As noted by countless critics, however, the graphic is near-identical to one shared by the North Carolina Democratic Party earlier this month, which featured a depiction of a donkey – the symbol often associated with the Democratic Party – in the background. The only change in the North Carolina GOP’s version of the graphic was that its color was changed from blue to red.

“Y’all left the Donkey in the background when you tried to steal our graphic,” wrote Dawson McNamara-Bloom, a spokesperson for the North Carolina Democratic Party, in a social media post on X. “What's remarkable is that in the last year, your party has done something to harm every single item on this list.”

The Young Democrats of North Carolina chastised the North Carolina GOP for stealing the graphic without bothering to “even take out the donkey,” as did several other critics.

“Bro this is so crazy they didn't even get rid of the donkey,” wrote political digital strategist Sam Parker.

Anderson Clayton, the chair of the North Carolina Democratic Party, mocked the North Carolina GOP for having “no original thoughts,” and Hasan Pyarali, a Democratic Party political operative, issued a similar critique.

“Republicans have no plans to address any of these issues the same way they have no plans for their social media content and have to copy,” Pyarali wrote.