North Carolina Lt. Governor Mark Robinson, and current Republican gubernatorial candidate, was on a whirlwind restaurant tour of the Triad this week with stops in and near his home turf of Guilford County – shaking hands, meeting diners, posing for selfies, and doing all the other things that politicians do when they’re trying to win an election.
But recent polls conducted by High Point University, Elon University, and other polls by national news outlets and polling organizations suggest Robinson has some catching up to do if he is indeed going to win the governor’s seat.
Robinson was born in Greensboro in 1968 and it was nearly half a century later when a single speech on gun rights before the Greensboro City Council went viral and shot him into notoriety. That speech later helped him win the job of Lieutenant Governor of the State of North Carolina.
This week, Robinson hit central North Carolina in a tour of one place after another where he came in close contact with a lot of supporters and potential fans. During one of the campaign stops, he explained why he was doing it that way.
“The best way to campaign is to be on the ground with the people,” he said.
Which was exactly what he was doing in crowded restaurants in the Triad in places like Guilford County and the surrounding counties, hitting small towns such as Colfax in what may be the closest watched gubernatorial race in the entire country.
While Robinson found a lot of support at stops along the way, and there was a lot of energy among the crowds of supporters he spoke to and heard from, the latest polls were projecting that Robinson will have to make up a lot of ground if he’s going to catch and surpass Democratic candidate Josh Stein, the state’s attorney general since 2017.
In a new High Point University poll conducted with the aid of SurveyUSA, in the race for North Carolina governor, 48 percent of those polled said they intended to vote for Stein, while 34 percent said they planned to vote for Robinson.
That poll consisted of registered voters in North Carolina.
About 18 percent of those polled said they were undecided at this point.
(By the way, in that same poll, in the presidential race, Democratic presidential hopeful and Vice President Kamala Harris was polling at 46 percent of the state’s registered voters, while former President Donald Trump was pulling in 45 percent. About 8 percent of those polled said they were undecided in the presidential race.)
A brand new poll from Elon University released on Tuesday, August 27, showed that, in the race for governor, voter impressions of Stein were more positive than of Robinson: 44 percent had very or somewhat favorable views of Stein, compared to 30 percent who had favorable views of Robinson.
On the flip side of the coin, 50 percent of the state’s voters polled had unfavorable views of Robinson, while 29 percent had unfavorable views of Stein.
The well-respected poll aggregator site Five Thirty-Eight has collected several other polls that showed Stein leading Robinson by at least eight points.
None of those numbers seemed to rankle Robinson this week as he was all smiles and full of optimism during his restaurant tour of the Triad in small towns where he was shaking hands and talking about key issues such as education and the economy.
“We need to focus on the here and now,” Robinson said, “and the ‘here and now’ is our economy and the five pillars that stands on – public safety, public education, healthcare, infrastructure and housing.”
Robinson also used the rapid-fire tour to address some attack ads that the Stein campaign has been running on TV. One of those ads alleges that Robinson and his wife years ago ran a daycare where children were subjected to unsanitary and unsafe conditions.
“It’s completely ridiculous,” Robinson said at one stop, adding that the daycare was clean and safe.
He said that, frankly, the daycare provided a lot of special help to kids that needed help badly.
However, despite his enthusiasm, the numbers for Robinson don’t look good.
Donald Trump is solidly supporting Robinson, but that might not matter as much as it once did. In early March, the former president formally endorsed Robinson. That helped Robinson in the primary, but things are more complicated in the coming general election, and clearly not all Trump voters are smitten with Robinson.
Professor Jason Husser, the director of the Elon University Poll, said the following regarding the results: “While our favorability data shows Trump and Harris with competitive levels of support, our data also shows a clear favorability advantage for Josh Stein over Mark Robinson. This is not because Stein seems exceptionally popular – his overall favorability is similar to that of Harris. Rather, Stein’s 14-point favorability advantage over Robinson comes from Robinson being far less popular than Trump among both Republicans and Independents.”
Robinson is pushing an agenda that calls for easing inflation by curtailing “out of control federal government spending,” and he added that “high interest rates and increased energy costs have made the price of everything go up.”
“The state can help reduce the effects of inflation by cutting taxes and fees, reducing energy costs and responsibly managing the state budget so that life is more affordable for everyone,” he maintains.
Robinson said he also wants, as governor, to invest in rural broadband, safer and wider roadways, coastal protections, bridges that need repair and well-maintained ports.
In addition, he’s calling for a tax cut for all North Carolinians.
Part of his platform states, “We must continue to cut taxes in North Carolina, not just for businesses but for every hardworking taxpayer in the state. The more money citizens keep from their hard-earned paycheck, the more money they have to make ends meet.”
Robinson is also pledging that, as the state’s governor, he will support agriculture and reduce unnecessary regulations, as well as beef up workforce development.
But the Republican hopeful has a long, steep climb before he’ll be in any position to implement policy in the state.
And the new Kamala Harris factor isn’t helping.
Political pundits are predicting that the departure of Joe Biden from the presidential race and the swift ascendency of Harris – to the point where North Carolina is now suddenly a battleground state – hurts Robinson’s chances in the gubernatorial race because the younger more energetic Harris is likely to bring out the Democratic voters in North Carolina much more so than Biden would have been able to do.
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Robinson is going down to defeat unless he does something to energize his campaign and the voters. It’s not too late, but he must act right away.
Vowing to repeal the Sales Tax on food would be the most effective – and electric – measure. It’s still levied, albeit at just 2%, despite being imposed as a temporary tax in 1961. That 2% goes back to the counties, so they’ll probably have to be compensated on a decreasing scale for a couple of years to wean them off the money – but it can be done easily because the state’s coffers are overflowing with money.
That’s a winning issue – if he’ll use it. And fast.
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I don’t know if a NC governor has the authority to repeal a tax on food. First off, as I understand, the state does not apply tax on food. When the state phased out the food tax in 1999, the state allowed local governments to continue charging tax on food, which Guilford County chose to do. Food tax is one of the primary reasons I object to Skip Alston’s plan to add more tax burdens to Guilford County residents. Vote NO to Skip Alston’s tax increase in November. If Mark Robinson wants to campaign against taxes, campaign to eliminate food tax at the county level. Governments exercise unfairness and discrimination through disparate tax laws.
The Governor Can initiate legislation to repeal the vestigial Food Tax.
“Food Tax Terry” Sanford initiated legislation to impose the tax in 1961.
That’s how NC became one of the few states to impose sales tax on food.
If you desire to have a Democrat continue to be the NC governor, then you will be sacrificing the Republican, Mark Robinson, who will work with President Trump for the benefit of NC. Joshua Stein will be a hindrance to President Trump. Think back to Covid and to Roy Cooper’s mandates, which were in lockstep with Biden/Harris. Roy Cooper is not a freethinker or a leader. He listens to fellow Democrats and then follows. Joshua Stein is no different. Joshua Stein is a politician who wants to return to Washington DC where he is from. Mark Robinson is more independent and will work with President Trump for the benefit of all North Carolinians. Mark Robinson is a North Carolinian from birth, unlike Joshua Stein who is from Washington DC and thinks he knows what is best for NC. That is only true if you agree with abortion on demand at any time, and felons voting.
A previous comment that needs repeating:
If Anna Stein searched the NCDHHS records illegally to gain information that might be hurtful to Mark Robinson’s campaign is true, legal action by NCDHHS should be taken against Anna Stein. Remember, Joshua Stein is from Washington D.C. What better place to learn how to sabotage your opponent than at the feet of your lawyer father. I don’t care how long Stein has lived in NC, the stench and dirty tricks of Washington cannot be washed away. Stein’s desire to become governor of NC is merely a steppingstone to a higher office, he hopes. Based on Stein’s past actions, it can be said that he favors medication abortions, opposed NC’s 12-week abortion ban, supported Obamacare to the extent of writing a brief with the US Supreme Court in support of Obamacare, and finds warm and fuzzy the idea of felons voting. Look at who has endorsed Joshua Stein and that will tell you all you need to know: Skip Alston, Rabbi Fred Guttman, Durham Committee on the Affairs of Black People, and the North Carolina Association of Educators to name a few. Joshua Stein weighs everything he does to get to his ultimate prize, President of the United States. Stop him by voting for Mark Robinson.
Well said! And might I add, Robinson has stayed out of the gutter with his campaign, while Josh (and Anna) Stein continue to grovel in gutter and offer little substance.
Excellent point American Believer, and I agree 101%. I’ve known Mark for a few years before he got into politics and he has not changed. He holds to holds to his beliefs and will not go into the gutter.
As I’ve said before, you may not agree with everything he says, but you know where you stand with him and he says what he means; He won’t change his position unless you can provide concrete proof.
I suspect that most of the voters who voted out the woke Supreme Court Justices in 2022 will eventually vote against Stein for the same reason. Stein may argue that he is really a centrist, but his party is not, nor were his positions in some of the cases decided by the woke Supreme Court. Voters may find Robinson unlikeable, but it seems clear that they are happier with Republicans than Democrats in State government.
A man of God will never be defeated. no matter how this election goes, Mark and Donald will be victorious in the eyes of the unborn.
Mark Robinson on a restaurant tour! How fitting!.
He is after my own heart. I love good food. Yummy.
Josh Stein is backed by Soros…enough said.
Bob Ross, you’re spot on!
This man is a vile human being and shouldn’t be in public office
Why vile?
Maybe because he’s a black conservative who speaks his mind, but hey, what do I know