Republican nominee for governor Mark Robinson is vowing to broadly reshape North Carolina agencies in a more conservative direction if elected.
During a speech at annual North Carolina Republican Party convention, Robinson zeroed in on pro-diversity efforts and “critical race theory” lessons in schools, which he described as garbage. He criticized teachers and other school officials who, he said, see themselves “all-powerful bureaucrats who think they know more than you, know your children better than you, who believe it’s okay to feed your children a steady diet of communism and p*rnography.”
It’s not just education policy where he would focus his efforts to remake state government, Robinson said, pointing to the agencies that oversee public safety, public health, environmental regulations and more.
“It is the governor who is the person that appoints the people who will hold sway” over the day-to-day workings of state government, Robinson told the crowd. “... That’s what we intend to bring, to the office of the governor. We intend to bring change.”
Robinsondenounced the media for focusing too much on Donald Trump's ongoing criminal and civil trials and not the “failures of the Democratic Party.” And hecredited Republican policies with the state's economic success, stressing that the role of the governor's office — under his leadership — would be to preserve that success.
“North Carolina is literally on the cusp of exploding economically,” Robinson said. “It’s time for us to direct that explosion in the right way and cause this state to be something better than it already is.”
He added: “Trust me, there are enough people in this state who are talented enough and share the vision that we have that we can make this a reality, folks.”
'A clear choice'
In two of the past four years, the annual convention’s prime speaking slot has gone to former President Donald Trump. This year it was Robinson, the sitting lieutenant governor and Republican gubernatorial nominee. And while he shared the spotlight with North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum — a billionaire tech investor who’s thought to be auditioning for consideration as Trump’s vice president — it was Robinson who many of those in attendance were there to see.
'Two competing visions': Robinson, Stein set to run unprecedented race for NC governor
Robinson — who has little political pedigree beyond his one term as lieutenant governor — has a distinct and pugnacious speaking style that has won him strong support from the Christian right and frequent comparisons to Trump.
But while Trump appears to be in a comfortable position so far this year in the Tar Heel State — polls consistently show him leading Democratic President Joe Biden in North Carolina, and by a larger margin than in 2020 — those polls also tend to show Robinson struggling to attract the same levels of support.
Many but not all polls of the governor’s race so far have shown Democratic nominee Josh Stein leading or tied with Robinson, even as Trump also leads Biden among the same voters.
If those trends hold it could lead to the third straight election in which North Carolina voters elect a Democrat for governor even as they also back Trump for president. That’s how Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper was elected in 2016 and 2020. Cooper is term-limited from running again.
“North Carolinians have a clear choice in this election,” said Morgan Hopkins, a spokesperson for the Stein campaign. “They can vote for Josh Stein, a leader who will fight to build a safer and stronger North Carolina for all, or Mark Robinson, whose fringe and unhinged agenda would kill jobs and take our state backwards.”
'Only in America'
Robinson will likely have little trouble winning over voters like the GOP faithful who attended this weekend’s annual convention in Greensboro and responded to his speech with multiple standing ovations.
But Robinson’s critics inside the GOP have long questioned whether he’ll be able to attract enough undecided voters, or even moderate Republicans, to win in November. They fear that his controversial past statements on Jews, abortion, LGBTQ rights and women’s place in society — or his history of legal issues stemming from years of financial problems — could turn off voters who might otherwise be convinced to vote Republican.
Robinson wins GOP primary race for NC governor
Robinson leaned into his financial struggles Saturday, talking about growing up “in a little rat-infested house” in Greensboro, not far from the convention center where he was giving his speech, and later working a minimum-wage job at the adjoining mall. He said he’s proud to live in a country where that background didn’t keep him down forever.
“I used to work right across the street here at the mall, making $7 an hour, trying to take care of a wife and two children,” Robinson said. “Now I’m standing before you, as my wife says, about to be the governor of North Carolina. Only in America.”
When Robinson won the GOP primary for governor in March, challenger Bill Graham conceded the race but also said Republican primary voters might have just handed the governor’s mansion to Democrats — and possibly the White House, too, if Robinson’s controversies end up energizing liberal voters and hurting Trump’s chances of winning North Carolina, a key swing state.
“He puts a conservative future at risk for everyone,” Graham said when conceding the race.
North Carolina was the only swing state that voted for Trump in 2020. As he seeks to return to the White House this year, Republicans see it as a must-win: Even if Trump flips one or two states that voted for Biden last time, it could be for naught if Biden flips North Carolina. Burgum took several opportunities in his speech to remind the crowd of what's on the line.
"The other 49 states, they're counting on North Carolina," he said. "They're counting on you to do what it takes to make sure that we win."
A historic candidacy
North Carolina has voted for a Democratic presidential candidate only twice in the past 50 years — Jimmy Carter in 1976 and Barack Obama in 2008. Yet only three Republicans have won the race for governor since the end of Reconstruction in the 1890s: James Holshauser, Jim Martin and Pat McCrory.
If Robinson can pull off a win in November, he become the fourth Republican governor in modern North Carolina history and the state’s first Black governor.
In a speech Saturday the GOP’s nominee for lieutenant governor, Hal Weatherman, said Democrats are hypocritical for nominating Stein, who is white, for governor even though Democrats “like to present themselves as the party of the minority.”
While Robinson is one of small number of Black politicians to ever win any statewide elected office in North Carolina, he has at times shied away from embracing the historic nature of his candidacy. And in social media posts, he has been highly critical of Black culture for years.
After Trump came to Robinson’s hometown of Greensboro earlier this year and called him “Martin Luther King on steroids,” Robinson’s critics were quick to note social media posts in which Robinson had slammed King as a communist agitator and bemoaned that “so many rights were lost” because of the Civil Rights Movement.
In another post, Robinson wrote, “Someone asked me if I considered myself part of the ‘African-American’ community. I told them NO!”
In March, a WRAL News Poll showed Robinson winning just 14% of the Black vote despite his potential to make history as the state’s first Black governor. Overall, it showed Stein up 2 percentage points by a margin of 44% to 42% and with 15% of voters still undecided.
Robinson and Stein in extremely tight NC governor's race, WRAL News poll shows
The number of undecided voters was far greater than in the presidential race — indicating that the race for governor is still well within reach for either side. And more recent polls indicate that those thousands of undecided voters are still waiting to make up their minds.
A poll by the conservative Carolina Journal in early May found Robinson and Stein tied at 39% support, with 17% of voters undecided and about 4% more backing Libertarian nominee Mike Ross.
One poll last week, by the liberal group Carolina Forward, found Stein leading Robinson 44% to 43%, with 13% undecided or saying they wouldn’t vote. Another poll within recent days from High Point University showed Robinson leading Stein, 35% to 30%, with a whopping 36% still undecided.
The Associated Press contributed to this article.
