The Most Important But Also Worriesome Governor Race of 2024
Introduction
Gubernatorial races in 2024 will not get that much attention this election cycle because there are far more Gubernatorial elections in the midterms than in presidential years, and most of the states where the candidates for governor are running in 2024 are safe seats that are uncompetitive. But there is one race for governor in 2024 in the Tar Heel State that will be hotly contested. The race is between the state's current lieutenant governor on the Republican Side and the current state Attorney General on the Democratic Side.
Mark Robinson, on the Republican side, is VERY RADICAL even by 2020s republican standards.
Mark Robinson, the lieutenant governor of North Carolina, is running for governor of North Carolina as the Republican nominee. Roy Cooper, the current democratic governor of North Carolina, is term-limited and can not run for another term. Josh Stein, the current state attorney general and former state senator, is running as the democratic nominee for Governor in North Carolina. If elected, he would be the first Jewish governor of North Carolina. Mark Robinson, if elected, would be the first black governor of North Carolina, but that is where the good news about Robinson ends, and the good news ends fast. Mark Robinson is anti-abortion and called abortion genocide. He is also anti-LGBT and calls LGBT people "filth." Mark Robinson also has made violent, antisemitic, and homophobic states and failed to pay federal income tax for seven years in a row. Worse, Mark Robinson is also a holocaust denier, which is incredibly horrific. While Stein has a strong lead in the polls, unlike Doug Mastrino, who ran for Governor of Pennsylvania and lost by a big margin (thankfully), Mastrino was also extreme but had very little money. Mark Robinson has successfully fundraised and received $1 million in donations from Duke Energy, a large electric utility company in the Southeastern United States. Unlike the governor's race in Pennsylvania in 2022 with Mastrino (strangely also enough against the then state attorney general at the time named Josh), the Republican Governors Association is spending money on Ads in North Carolina, and the race is rated a toss-up by the Cook Political Report, and Robinson has won statewide before as lieutenant governor, the current Governor Roy Cooper said communication between him and Robinson is non-existent. So, while Josh Stein leads in the polls, this race can not be overlooked because the consequences in the country's ninth most populous state could be catastrophic.
Mark Robinson has made unethical, violent, and egregious statements that should be disqualifying.
Robinson has made many extremely reprehensible statements. Mark Robinson, in a 2014 Facebook post, quoted Adolf Hitler, and in a 2017 Facebook post, Mark Robinson said the Holocaust was fake. He also said in a 2018 Facebook post as well about the movie Black Panther that the title character was "created by an agnostic Jew and put to film by satanic Marxist," called the movie "trash" and said it is designed "to pull the shekels out of black people" Mark Robinson also said the Parkland School Shooting survivors were "privileged activists funded by George Soros," a claim without any evidence that embraces a popular antisemitic trope on the right and trivializes the tragedy of what occurred in Parkland. He called LGBT people "filth" in a speech in 2021 when he referred to transgender and gay people as "filth." In 2024, Mark Robinson made violent statements and said that "some people need killing.” Mark Robinson also noted that the sexual assault allegations against Bill Cosby came from the Illuminati, a claim without any evidence, and trivializes the harm of sexual assault. Any one of these statements should be disqualifying and make him totally unfit to be anywhere near the governor’s office in North Carolina or any elected office. Yet the GOP establishment, including former President Donald Trump, North Carolina State Senate President Phil Berger, Tennesse Governor Bill Lee, and US Senator Ted Budd, have endorsed Robinson. As previously mentioned, Duke Energy and the Republican Governors Association continue to financially support Robinson despite him being a holocaust denier and making homophobic, conspiratorial statements. Robinson has refused to apologize for any of these statements and insisted that they are not antisemitic and called these statements "poorly worded." Does it also say something alarming about the Republican party in North Carolina when in addition to Robinson running as governor, the candidate for State Superintendent who beat out the incumbent republican state Superintened in the primary supports executing former President Barack Obama and attended the January 6th insurrection is that the person we need in charge of North Carolinas public schools? I do not think so. I also want to make it clear I do not support any of these statements whatsoever and strongly condemn these remarks; the Holocaust was accurate and the greatest crime in human history. The Parkland School Shooting was a horrific tragedy, and LGBTQ people should be respected, not insulted.
CONCLUSION
Mark Robinson is a horrible person running for governor in North Carolina, and the stakes for policy in North Carolina are also very high. In another blog post, I will discuss some things the North Carolina General Assembly has done in recent years. Josh Stein is a pretty typical democratic politician who, as attorney general, has a solid record of defending the Affordable Care Act and DACA in court, helped secure settlements for opioid abuse and illegal robocalls, and also helped with a backlog of untested rape kits in North Carolina. Stein is also a vocal supporter of funding North Carolina public schools that are currently badly underfunded ranked 45th in per-student funding, and Stein has proposed reinstating the state Earned Income Tax Credit and protecting abortion access. Compared to his record against Mark Robinson, there is an obvious choice for governor in North Carolina, and because the stakes are so incredibly high, if you are able to, I would suggest donating to Josh Stein's campaign. Josh Stein would be an excellent choice for North Carolina governor, and Mark Robinson would be a horrendous choice for North Carolina governor. I honestly wish I did not have to write this, and part of me is apprehensive about posting this on the internet yet (to be clear again, Mark Robinson’s statements are unacceptable; I do not endorse or condone any of his statements). This is necessary to write about because the stakes in this particular election are simply too high.
References (There are a lot of them, but that is a good thing)
CORRECTION: THE DAY I PUT THIS BLOG POST OUT, THE COOK POLITICAL REPORT CHANGED THE NORTH CAROLINA GOVERNOR RACE FROM “TOSSUP” TO “LEANS DEMOCRAT.” THE COOK POLITICAL REPORT USES RATINGS OF LEAN, LIKLEY, SOLID, AND TOSS-UP FOR THE CLOSEST RACES.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/mar/05/mark-robinson-north-carolina
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/07/opinion/mark-robinson-antisemitism.html
https://ncnewsline.com/2024/07/05/lt-gov-mark-robinson-at-nc-church-meeting-some-folks-need-killing/
https://www.wral.com/story/i-m-not-very-good-at-math-lt-gov-robinson-pays-off-tax-bills-dating-back-to-2006-after-wral-inquiry/20394117/
https://www.wect.com/2019/10/21/nc-among-four-states-that-reach-b-settlement-framework-with-drug-companies-over-opioid-epidemic/
https://www.wnct.com/news/attorney-general-josh-stein-leads-51-attorneys-general-12-companies-in-fight-to-stop-robocalls/
https://ncdoj.gov/attorney-general-josh-stein-continues-to-fight-to-preserve-daca/
https://www.jpost.com/diaspora/antisemitism/article-757927
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/muckraker/mark-robinson-north-carolina-facebook
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2024https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josh_Stein_North_Carolina_gubernatorial_election
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josh_Stein
https://ncnewsline.com/2024/08/12/big-duke-energy-dollars-are-flowing-to-attacks-in-the-nc-governors-race/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XtsbLBxWX_E
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Robinson_(American_politician)
