The Republican candidate for governor of the State of North Carolina, Mark Robinson, was thrown off his game on Thursday afternoon, Sept. 19 when CNN reported that Robinson, years ago, referred to himself as a “Black Nazi” and posted on a porn site that he favored a return to slavery and he despised Martin Luther King, Jr.
CNN reported a lot more things that day that were likely to make North Carolinians not vote for Robinson.
That put him at even longer odds than he had been facing against his Democratic opponent, NC Attorney General Josh Stein.
After the CNN report, many Republican leaders pulled their endorsements from Robinson, donors abruptly stopped funding his run, and many members of his campaign staff turned in their resignations.
The CNN report was a solid blow to Robinson – a man who became well known after delivering an impassioned speech defending gun owner rights at a Greensboro City Council meeting in 2018.
However, in the past week, Robinson has been striking back.
He’s filed a defamation lawsuit against CNN asking for $50 million in damages and he’s also filed suit against Louis Money – a former adult porn shop owner who claimed Robinson frequented porn video booths at his establishment nearly five times a week years ago.
Robinson has also been keeping a pedal-to-the-metal campaign schedule and has been attacking NC Governor Roy Cooper because of what Robinson says has been a pathetic response to the hurricane strike in the western part of the state.
Here’s an example of Robinson’s campaign schedule. On Thursday, October 17, to take one day, Lieutenant Governor Robinson was going strong from morning till night,
That day, he held a 9 a.m. meet and greet in Statesville in Iredell County and an 11 a.m. meet and greet in Charlotte. He then held a 1 p.m. event in Gaston County – and he followed that with a 3:30 p.m. campaign stop in Lincoln County.
That same evening, at 6 p.m. Robinson held a Town Hall meeting in High Point along with Randolph County Sheriff Greg Seabolt.
Robinson also took questions from the media between events that day.
But none of it seems to be closing the wide gap he needs to close in the next two weeks if he’s going to be the state’s next governor.
According to a Carolina Journal poll released this week, NC Attorney General Josh Stein was getting nearly 50 percent of likely North Carolina voters while Robinson only had the backing of 35.8 percent.
That’s a big change from earlier this year: A Carolina Journal poll conducted this spring had Robinson leading Stein by 5 percentage points.
A new Morning Consult poll of likely voters now has Robinson trailing Stein by a whopping 22 points.
Some say that “Any publicity is good publicity,” but the truth is that there really is such a thing as bad publicity. Between the report on CNN, and another report in an online news site, The Assembly, quoting Louis Money, and the many ads the Stein campaign has been running showing an angry Robinson denouncing women who have abortions as being baby killers because they couldn’t keep their skirts down – well, that’s bad publicity, and, ever since September 19, Robinson has been on the receiving end of it.
Still, none of that is keeping Robinson from attempting to strike back as well as come back in this race.
Robinson has called for Cooper to resign and Cooper has called for Robinson to resign.
“I don’t think he’s qualified,” Cooper said this week about Robinson, after being asked whether Robinson should step down.
Cooper has expressed his view many times that, should something happen to him, the state would be in dire straits because Robinson is next in line to be governor if he, Cooper, is unable to fulfill his duties.
Robinson has likewise attacked Cooper.
Robinson said this week, “My response to him is he should resign for the pitiful response that he showed for the people of western North Carolina.”
Meanwhile, Cooper has been accusing Robinson of spreading damaging misinformation about the ongoing rescue and support efforts in the western part of the state.
But don’t expect things to get any calmer in this race between now and Election Day.
When Robinson was asked this week by a reporter, “Is your rhetoric too harsh?”
Robinson responded, “Absolutely not!”
He added that he’d been accused of picking fights with people, but he said that’s not the case.
“If anything, it’s been people who pick fights with me,” he said.
