This is catching the MOAM’s attention today….. a midterm-season number that sounds like half the truck drivers in North Carolina got illegal commercial licenses. Spoiler: that isn’t what the books say.
The claim
On September 2, 2026, the Republican National Committee Research account posted that “54% of North Carolina commercial driver’s licenses were issued illegally to foreign nationals,” tying the figure to former Gov. Roy Cooper as he runs for U.S. Senate. The post has kept circulating into late September as the NC race heats up.
What actually happened
PolitiFact (Sep 24) rated the claim False. The 54% figure comes from a Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration sample of 50 noncitizen CDL records — 27 of those 50 failed federal compliance checks — not from a count of all North Carolina commercial licenses.
When the North Carolina DMV reviewed the full file, it reported 325,114 active CDLs. About 8,540 (roughly 2.6%) belonged to noncitizens. Of those, 1,149 — about 0.35% of all active CDLs — had administrative errors (mostly expiration dates that didn’t match work-authorization dates). The DMV told PolitiFact none of those drivers were in the country illegally. The state downgraded problem licenses, and by July 21 the FMCSA had approved North Carolina’s corrective plan.
Real compliance problems showed up in that federal sample. Stretching a 27-of-50 audit into “54% of North Carolina commercial driver’s licenses” is a different claim — and a false one.
More: PolitiFact · FMCSA Jan 8, 2026 letter (PDF) · Herald-Sun / NC DMV review
MOAM take
Truck licensing rules matter — nobody wants shortcuts on the highway. What doesn’t help is turning a small audit sample into “half the CDLs in the state.” If the argument needs a bigger number than the full DMV file will give you, the argument’s the problem.
Verdict: FALSE — 54% was a sample of 50 noncitizen records, not half of all NC CDLs; full review found about 0.35% with errors, none issued to people in the country illegally.
MOAM Out.
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