Republican Mark Robinson's campaign for governor in North Carolina has been rocked by a CNN report that he posted racist and explicit messages on a pornography web site message board more than a decade ago. Some in his party fear the allegations could threaten Donald Trump's standing in a state critical to winning the presidency in November.
While The Associated Press has not confirmed the contents of the report and Robinson denied it, it led to a last-minute push by some Republicans to persuade Robinson to withdraw from the race.
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Robinson has refused to do that, standing pat as the latest of a line of populist, outside-the-box Republicans to rise in Trump's shadow.
Who is Mark Robinson?
The former furniture factory worker's political career took off when he attended a Greensboro City Council meeting in 2018, when he spoke out against the council's plans to cancel a gun show in the wake of a school shooting in Florida. “I’m going to come down here to this city council and raise hell just like these loonies from the left do until you listen to the majority of the people in this city,” he said in a defense of gun rights that went viral.
Robinson left his furniture job and took up public speaking, addressing the National Rifle Association and other conservative groups. He ran for lieutenant governor in 2020 as a Republican, winning a statewide post in his first campaign. Robinson soon began positioning himself to be the first major party Black candidate for governor in 2024, when Democrat Roy Cooper could not seek reelection because of term limits.
Robinson also quickly drew attention for stoking conservative culture wars, especially on sex and gender politics. In a 2019 Facebook post, Robinson, who admitted paying for his then-girlfriend to have an abortion in the 1980s, said abortion in America was about “killing the child because you weren’t responsible enough to keep your skirt down.” In a 2021 speech in a church, he used the word “filth” when discussing gay and transgender people.
Robinson's provocative language led some Republicans to worry he stood little chance of winning a general election in North Carolina, which has a history of rejecting hard-line conservatives for governor in favor of moderate Democrats. Most Republican voters did not share that concern, nominating Robinson this year over two rivals widely seen as more electable. Robinson had extra help with a primary endorsement from Trump, who compared Robinson to Martin Luther King, Jr.
What are the allegations?
Robinson's campaign has not gone the way his supporters had hoped. Many thought he could prevail a right-leaning state where Democrats have long relied on African American votes to win. Instead, Robinson has consistently trailed in polls behind Democrat Josh Stein, the state's attorney general. Stein contends Robinson is unfit to lead the state.
Republican anxiety escalated when rumors of a blockbuster CNN report began circulating. Even before the report aired Thursday, there were calls for Robinson to step aside before the midnight deadline so a new nominee could step in. Robinson refused, preemptively releasing a video in which he said: “Let me reassure you the things that you will see in that story — those are not the words of Mark Robinson.”
CNN unearthed posts it said Robinson left on a porn site's message boards more than a decade ago in which he referred to himself as a “black NAZI,” said in 2012 he preferred Hitler to then-President Barack Obama, slammed King as “worse than a maggot” and said he enjoyed transgender pornography.
CNN said it linked the posts to Robinson by tracing the email connected to them to the candidate as well as noting phrases Robinson still uses and references to his personal life, family history and marriage in the writings.
Many North Carolina Republicans were aghast, but Robinson remained the nominee. Ballots were mailed out to overseas voters and service members, marking the official start of voting and a point of no return.
What is the political impact?
A governor's race usually does not effect which presidential candidate wins a state's electoral votes. North Carolina, in particular, has shown its voters to be comfortable with divided government. But Democrats hope — and some Republicans fear — that Robinson's situation might make things different.
Trump won North Carolina by less than 1 percentage point in 2020 and Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee, has her eye on its 16 electoral votes. Even before the CNN report, Democrats were encouraged by Robinson's struggles. Now Democrats are piling on: Harris' campaign on Friday launched an ad featuring Trump praising Robinson, and the Democratic National Committee bought billboards linking Trump and Robinson.
In a sign that Republicans are nervous, Robinson will no longer appear with Trump when the former president is in Wilmington on Saturday. But the delicate dance could prove complicated down the stretch of the campaign in a state that Trump expects to visit often.
“I don’t think it’s going to have an impact,” U.S. Rep. Richard Hudson, R-N.C., said Friday. “I think voters are smart enough to differentiate one race from another.”