Greensboro, North Carolina — Republican gubernatorial candidate Mark Robinson has vowed to significantly realign North Carolina institutions in a more conservative direction if elected.
Speaking at the North Carolina Republican Party's annual convention, Robinson called out diversity efforts in schools and “critical race theory” classes, calling them garbage. He criticized teachers and school administrators, saying they were “all-powerful bureaucrats who think they know more than you do, they know your kids better than you do, and they're happy to feed them a constant diet of communism and pornography.”
Robinson said education policy won't be the only area state government reform will focus on, pointing to agencies that oversee public safety, public health, environmental regulation and more.
“It's the governor who appoints people who have influence over the day-to-day running of state government,” Robinson told the crowd. “…That's what we intend to bring to the governorship. We intend to make a difference.”
For two of the past four years, former President Donald Trump has won the headline speaking role at the annual conference. This year, it was Robinson, the current lieutenant governor and Republican gubernatorial candidate. Robinson shared the spotlight with North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, a billionaire technology investor who is believed to be auditioning to be Trump's running mate, but it was Robinson that many in attendance came to see.
Robinson has little political experience beyond one term as lieutenant governor, but he has a distinctive, combative speaking style, has strong support from the Christian right and is frequently compared to Trump.
But while Trump appears to be in comfortable position in North Carolina so far this year — polls have consistently shown him leading Democrat President Joe Biden in the state by a larger margin than he did in 2020 — polls also show Robinson struggling to garner the same level of support.
Many, but not all, gubernatorial polls so far have Democratic candidate Josh Stein leading or tied with Robinson, but Trump is also leading Biden among those same voters.
If the trend continues, North Carolina voters could end up supporting Trump for president but electing a Democrat for governor for a third straight election, as they did in 2016 and 2020 when Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper was elected. Cooper is term-limited and cannot run again.
“North Carolinians have a clear choice in this election,” Stein campaign spokesman Morgan Hopkins said. “They can vote for Josh Stein, a leader who will fight to build a safer and stronger North Carolina for all, or they can vote for Mark Robinson, whose radical and unreasonable policies will kill jobs and hold our state back.”
“Only in America”
Robinson will likely have little trouble winning over voters like the GOP faithful who attended the party's annual convention in Greensboro this weekend and gave him multiple standing ovations.
Robinson spoke about his own financial struggles Saturday, describing how he grew up in a “tiny house full of mice” in Greensboro not far from the convention center where he spoke and then took a minimum-wage job at the nearby mall. He said he's proud to live in a country where that background won't haunt him forever.
“I used to work at the mall across from here making $7 an hour and trying to support my wife and two kids,” Robinson said. “Now, my wife says, I'm about to become governor of North Carolina. That only happens in America.”
When Robinson won the Republican gubernatorial primary in March, her opponent, Bill Graham, dropped out of the race but said Republican primary voters might have handed the governor's mansion to a Democrat — and possibly the White House — if Robinson's controversy galvanizes liberal voters and undermines Trump's chances of winning the key battleground state of North Carolina.
“He puts the future of conservative causes at risk for everyone,” Graham said as he conceded the election.
North Carolina was the only battleground state that voted for Trump in 2020, and Republicans see it as a must-win state as Trump seeks to return to the White House this year. Even if Trump were to flip one or two states that voted for Biden last time, that could be for naught if Biden flips North Carolina. Burgum took numerous opportunities throughout his speech to remind his audience what's at stake.
“The other 49 states are counting on North Carolina,” he said, “to do what it takes for us to win.”
A historic candidacy
North Carolina has only voted for a Democratic presidential candidate twice in the past 50 years – Jimmy Carter in 1976 and Barack Obama in 2008 – but only three Republicans have won gubernatorial elections since Reconstruction in the 1890s: James Holshauser, Jim Martin and Pat McCrory.
If Robinson wins in November, he would become just the fourth Republican governor in North Carolina's modern history and the state's first Black governor.
Republican lieutenant governor candidate Hal Weatherman said in a speech Saturday that it was hypocritical for Democrats to nominate Stein, who is white, for governor even though they “want to portray themselves as the minority party.”
Robinson is one of the few black politicians to hold statewide office in North Carolina, but he has sometimes been hesitant to embrace the historic nature of his candidacy and has long been a vocal critic of black culture in his social media posts.
In another post, Robinson wrote, “Someone asked me if I considered myself part of the 'African American' community. I said NO!”
A WRAL News poll in March showed Robinson garnering just 14% of the black vote, despite potentially making history as the state's first black governor. Overall, the poll showed Stein leading by 2%, 44-42, with 15% of voters still undecided.
The number of undecided voters is far greater than the presidential race, suggesting the gubernatorial race is still well within reach for either side, and recent polls suggest thousands of undecided voters are still waiting to make a decision.
A poll conducted in early May by the conservative newspaper Carolina Journal found Robinson and Stein tied at 39 percent, with 17 percent of voters undecided and Libertarian Party candidate Mike Ross leading by about 4 percent.
A poll last week by the liberal group Carolina Forward showed Stein leading Robinson 44% to 43%, with 13% saying they were undecided or wouldn't vote. Another recent poll by High Point University showed Robinson leading Stein 35% to 30%, with an overwhelming 36% undecided.
