Republicans seek distance from Robinson, focus on other races

One day after a CNN report tied Republican gubernatorial nominee Mark Robinson to sexually explicit and racist comments on a pornographic website chatroom, GOP candidates distanced themselves from the sitting lieutenant governor, making the case that voters should focus on other races on the November ballot.

Robinson denied the comments are his, vowed to remain in the race and will be on the ballot. He had until the end of Thursday to withdraw from the race in order to get his name off the ballot, which were to be mailed to military and overseas voters Friday morning.

Robinson already trailed Democratic opponent Josh Stein, the state’s attorney general, in polling before the report from CNN. A WRAL News Poll found Robinson behind by 14 percentage points, in part, because of conservative defections. Polling averages put Robinson’s deficit at more than nine points.

Already Republicans are seeking to separate themselves from Robinson — and mitigate any damage to the party’s chances in other races.

Robinson will not appear at Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump’s rally in Wilmington, the AP reported Friday. And the Republican Governors Association, which has paid for attack ads in the race, canceled a fundraiser set for next week in Charlotte on Robinson’s behalf, the National Review reported. Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee, the chairman of the group, was scheduled to attend.

“I think what’s going to happen is people are deserting him,” said former North Carolina Gov. McCrory, a Republican, during an interview on CNN. “People that used to beg him to be on the same podium as him are now just going to walk away, and President Trump and his team basically were avoiding him during the last month or two.”

Democrats, for their part, are seeking to link Robinson to Trump and other GOP candidates, hoping the lieutenant governor’s scandal can boost their chances in a host of North Carolina.

Some Republicans are removing photos with Robinson or endorsements of him from their social media pages. Laurie Buckhout, the Republican nominee in U.S. House District 1, previously said she has “no reservations about tying myself to leaders like that at all,” referencing Robinson and Trump. She removed at least two photos of her and Robinson from social media.

Some are hoping to remind voters of other important races.

“The allegations regarding Mark Robinson are completely abhorrent and indefensible,” said Rep. Erin Pare, R-Wake, in a post on social media. “Mark has told the public these allegations are false and it is his responsibility to prove that to North Carolina voters. However, the turmoil at the top of the ticket underscores the importance of state legislative races.”

Pare had previously called Robinson “a great man, powerful speaker, and outstanding person” on social media.

CNN reported Thursday that a user named “minisoldr” made dozens of profane and inflammatory comments on a website called Nude Africa. CNN tracked the user name back to Robinson’s name, email and photo. Robinson used the same handle on other accounts.

The comments, made between 2008 and 2012, included calling himself a “Black Nazi” and condoned slavery.

“Those are not the words of Mark Robinson,” Robinson said in a video posted on social media shortly before the CNN story was published. He added that he, like U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, is the victim of a “high-tech lynching.”

Legislative worries

Republicans hold slim majorities in both chambers that are just big enough to allow them to override Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper’s veto without the votes of any Democrats. The super majorities would be critical to Republicans if Stein, as polling indicates, wins his race. Republicans are almost assured of holding the majority in both chambers, but the super majority is likely to come down to a handful of races in each chamber.

The 120-seat House has nine or 10 competitive races, while the 50-seat Senate has three, according to a presentation by Amy McConkey, the director of state affairs for the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Democrats would need to win four of those House races and two of the Senate elections to break the supermajority, she told the university’s Board of Trustees as part of a legislative update this week.

All 170 legislative positions are on the ballot in November as are all 10 statewide executive branch positions and one state Supreme Court seat.

Chris Cooper, a political science professor at Western Carolina University, laid out several potential impacts of the Robinson news. Republicans could vote for other Republicans and Stein or simply skip the governor’s race altogether when filling out their ballots, scenarios that would be good for GOP candidates.

Or the Robinson news could dampen overall enthusiasm among Republicans for voting altogether, leading to problems up and down the ballot for the GOP, a worst-case scenario for other Republican candidates.

Or, Cooper put it in a social media thread, Robinson’s denials and pushback against the reports could prove true — an unlikely outcome given CNN’s extensive research, Cooper said — and galvanize GOP support.

“They want to focus on salacious tabloid lies,” Robinson said in his video. “We’re not going to let them do that. We are staying in this race. We are in it to win it.”

The state Republican party is sticking with Robinson, saying in a statement that “the Left can try to smear Mark Robinson all they want,” but that voters will consider whether they are better off than they were four years ago when they go to the polls.

“The answer is overwhelmingly no and that’s why Republicans will win,” the statement said.

Will Robinson hurt Trump’s chances?

Republicans, however, have been worried about Robinson’s impact on the ballot before this week. And in the immediate aftermath, along with fresh reporting by others, those concerns have only intensified.

North Carolina Senate candidate Scott Lassiter, a Republican, called for Robinson to suspend his campaign on Thursday. The political scene was abuzz with speculation about the CNN report and how damaging it would be for Robinson, a political newcomer with a history of inflammatory rhetoric about women, Blacks, gays, transgender people, Jews and Muslims.

Robinson, the state’s first Black lieutenant governor, is seeking to be North Carolina’s first Black governor. He first won election in 2020 after rising to fame for a speech he delivered in 2018 at a Greensboro City Council meeting about gun rights.

Other GOP officials have avoided any mention in Robinson in their comments. North Carolina is one of the key battleground states in the presidential election, too, with former President Trump needing the state’s 16 electoral votes to have a path back to the White House.

“It was a tough day, but we must stay focused on the races we can win,” U.S. Sen. Thom Tillis, who backed a challenger to Robinson in the Republican gubernatorial primary and has not endorsed the lieutenant governor in the general election, said in a social media post. “We have to make sure President Trump wins NC and support the outstanding GOP candidates running for key NCGA and judicial races.”

Trump endorsed Robinson, calling him “better” than Martin Luther King, Jr., in one of his notable over-the-top lines of praise. Trump’s endorsement was a key to Robinson’s landslide victory in the primary. But, when asked about the Robinson endorsement, the Trump campaign didn’t mention him.

Robinson, a frequent warm-up speaker when Republican presidential candidates visit the state, wasn’t mentioned and didn’t speak at vice presidential nominee JD Vance’s Raleigh rally earlier in the week. He was initially expected to attend.

“President Trump’s campaign is focused on winning the White House and saving this country,” Karoline Leavitt, a Trump campaign spokeswoman, told WRAL in an emailed statement. “North Carolina is a vital part of that plan. We are confident that as voters compare the Trump record of a strong economy, low inflation, a secure border, and safe streets, with the failures of Biden-Harris, then President Trump will win the Tar Heel State once again. We will not take our eye off the ball.”

Trump won North Carolina by about 75,000 votes in 2020, the closest state of any that he carried that year.

McCrory, who is not a supporter of Robinson’s and said he was not qualified to be governor before the most recent report, said the Trump campaign has been moving away from Robinson.

“They were trying to walk away from him a while back and not wanting him to be on the stage,” McCrory said.

Democrats try to tie Robinson to others

While Republicans seek distance, Democrats are trying to tie Trump to Robinson, the campaign of Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee, posted photos of Robinson and Trump together and of Trump’s praising Robinson on social media, a sign that it will try to link the pair in the weeks before the election.

The Harris campaign announced a new ad to air in North Carolina showing Trump praising Robinson mixed with Robinson comments on abortion that have been in several Stein television ads.

By early Friday morning, the Democratic National Committee had already bought ads on billboards around North Carolina that show a photo of Trump and Robinson together, quoting Trump as saying “we have to cherish Mark” in addition to other praise Trump has had for Robinson in the past.

“Donald Trump and Mark Robinson are two MAGA extremists cut from the same cloth,” DNC chair Jaime Harrison told WRAL in an exclusive statement. “Both are anti-choice radicals, election deniers, and have a long and disturbing history of spewing hate.”

The first round of billboards are in Charlotte, Robinson’s hometown of Greensboro, and the Raleigh suburbs of Wake Forest and Youngsville — an area that’s also home to some of the few competitive state legislative races this year.

Stein, who is Jewish, said the comments tied to Robinson were “disqualifying,” but not surprising.

“I wish I could say I was surprised,” Stein said Friday. “He had called MLK a communist before. He has said awful things about Jewish people before. To see him declare that he himself is a Nazi is incredibly disturbing. That is absolutely disqualifying. But he has shown who he was before yesterday.”

Speaking after vetoing a Republican-backed bill to expand private school vouchers and require county sheriff’s to cooperate with detainer requests from federal immigration officials, Cooper said Republicans have had plenty of opportunities to repudiate Robinson in the past.

“He has made a lot of statements and posts in the same vein,” Cooper said Friday. “There’s not a whole lot new here about Mark Robinson’s character. GOP leaders and Donald Trump know who he is and they have embraced him and supported him from day one.”

WRAL’s Will Doran, Laura Leslie, Emily Walkenhorst and Jack Hagel contributed to this report.