Republicans are facing trouble in North Carolina amid recent polling that shows the party’s gubernatorial nominee, Mark Robinson, is trailing his Democratic opponent. What’s more, Democrats believe Robinson’s extreme candidacy could cause Donald Trump to lose the battleground state to the Democratic presidential nominee, Kamala Harris, in November.
Robinson, North Carolina’s first Black lieutenant governor, has been the subject of many headlines as a result of incendiary comments he’s made about race, women and the LGBTQ community, among other things. The gubernatorial hopeful has compared abortion to slavery, downplayed the issue of slavery itself and said, “Some folks need killing” during a church service in June.
“Mark Robinson is dangerous. I think he’s one of the most extreme MAGA men ever,” Nervahna Crew, a Democrat and Harris-Walz delegate in North Carolina, told theGrio.
Critics like Crew have been particularly incensed by Robinson’s comments about race, even denouncing the term “African-American” to describe his racial identity. Robinson also dismissed the “so-called” 1960s Civil Rights Movement as a time when “so many freedoms were lost” and called Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. a “communist.” Ironically, when Trump endorsed Robinson for governor, he called Robinson “Martin Luther King on steroids.”
In an ad from Progress NC Action, King’s son, Martin Luther King III, slammed Robinson for “repeatedly” mocking his father.
“It’s not the petty insults that bother me. It’s his outright rejection of the Civil Rights Movement my father and so many others lived and died for,” said King. “As my father said, nothing is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.”
Crew also participated in a Progress NC ad lambasting Robinson, expressing her outrage for online comments he made about women, including calling women “whores and heifers” and suggesting they “shouldn’t be leaders.”
Robinson has also made controversial statements about abortion, calling it murder and suggesting that it should be a crime punishable by death in North Carolina, where the medical procedure is legal for up to 12 weeks. Josh Stein slammed his Republican opponent for previously saying the issue of abortion was a result of women not being “responsible enough to keep [their] skirt down.”
Robinson has attempted to soften on the topic and, in August, released a campaign ad where he tearfully admits that he and his wife, Yolanda Hill Robinson, decided to get an abortion 30 years ago. He described it as a “very difficult decision” and said he supports North Carolina’s current law, which includes “common-sense exceptions” for rape, incest and the life of a mother.
Crew dismissed Robinson’s “fake crying” and attempt to pivot on abortion, telling theGrio she believes he’s trying to “downplay” and “cover up” his position. She added, “[He’s] not helping any woman at all because [he] doesn’t care for women, especially Black women.”
Robinson’s extreme language appears to be costing him the election. According to an August poll conducted by High Point University, Robinson is 14 points behind Josh Stein, the Democratic nominee for governor. Even more alarming for Republicans nationally, the nonpartisan Cook Political Report recently moved North Carolina from “lean Republican” to a “toss-up” in the presidential contest between Trump and Harris.
Trump won the state in the last two presidential elections; however, Harris and President Joe Biden nearly lost North Carolina four years ago by only 1.34 points, narrowing Hillary Clinton’s 3.6% loss in 2016.
Democrats hope Robinson’s extremism and declining favorability with North Carolina voters can benefit Harris on her path to 270 electoral votes, the needed number to win the White House on Nov. 5.
“Democrats feel pretty bullish about North Carolina,” said Joel Payne, a Democratic strategist and former Hillary Clinton campaign operative. He told theGrio Democrats shouldn’t “overplay” their hand but said they should “absolutely” make Republicans “fight for it.”
Payne argued that Republicans having to “pour money, resources and energy” to defend their historical advantage in North Carolina means they will have less money and resources in battleground states like Georgia, Arizona and Nevada.
“This is kind of Republican hubris and Republican governance, coming home to roost for them,” said Payne.
Marcus Bass, executive director of the advocacy group Advance Carolina, described Robinson’s candidacy as “blackface” and “pandering” in an attempt to “champion the same old Trumpian, Republican policies.”
“Though we do have a strong Bible Belt contingency of Black folks, we do have a very highly educated pool of voters,” Bass told theGrio.
He compared Robinson’s campaign for governor to the 2022 Republican nominee for U.S. Senate in Georgia, Herschel Walker, who similarly made headlines for controversial statements deemed extreme, even for the Trump-era Republican Party.
“He kind of poses to be someone that cares about the right to bear arms [and] cares about religion, but in reality, he does not care about any of those things,” said Bass.
Bass believes Republicans put Robinson at the top of the ticket in an attempt to court Black voters with some “Obama Magic” without “understanding the intentionality of the Black politic.”
While he admits there is some distrust of government and frustration with both parties among Black North Carolinians, Bass said, “Mark Robinson’s policies really don’t align with the … conservative base of Black voters that he claims to come from.”
Bass also called out the “political hypocrisy” of Republicans for “attacking the first Black woman running for president” while also running a Black man like Robinson for governor on the Republican ticket — something he doesn’t believe will sway Black voters.
He remains doubtful that Harris will win the general election in North Carolina against Trump, given the state’s history of splitting the ticket between a Democratic gubernatorial candidate and a Republican presidential candidate.
“Even Donald Trump has wavered in his support of Mark Robinson. Mark Robinson is really grasping onto Donald Trump, and not the other way around,” Bass pointed out.
Citing Cheri Beasley’s close Senate race in 2022, Bass said Democrats have to reexamine what went wrong and focus on issues important to voters, like affordability, public education, police reform and the impact of natural disasters in the state.
While Bass said he applauds the Harris campaign for its recent economic agenda rollout, he would also like to see Harris address more of the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, which he described as the “donkey in the room” at the Democratic National Convention.
He added, “It weighs solely on the big-tent party to sew up some of those misgivings among their base so everybody can hang in this thing through November.”
