The allegations were salacious. The fallout, immediate.
It’s been just days since CNN published a deeply reported story detailing the wildly offensive comments allegedly left on an adult website’s message board by North Carolina Republican gubernatorial nominee Mark Robinson. In that short time, the state’s already-contentious 2024 governor’s race has been upended, as strategists from both parties scramble to recalibrate with less than two months until election day. Robinson, currently serving as North Carolina’s Lieutenant Governor, has denied the allegations that he called himself a “black Nazi” who endorsed slavery, describing CNN’s report as “tabloid trash” while vowing to remain in the race against Democrat Attorney General Josh Stein.
As damning as CNN’s report may be — and as politically damaging as it may become for Robinson — the controversy swirling around his increasingly radioactive candidacy is not, in and of itself, wholly new. For years, Robinson has worked to move past his documented history of making nakedly racist and bigoted remarks towards Jewish people, women and members of the LGBTQ+ community. There have also been claims of a significant pornography addiction prior to his time in politics. Nevertheless, North Carolina Republicans nominated Robinson to run for governor by a margin of more than three to one, raising a larger, if more nebulous question.
How does someone like Robinson become a high level GOP candidate, and is he really as much of an aberration in conservative politics as many Republicans are now claiming?
What did the commentators say?
That Robinson, who first garnered political attention for an impassioned speech in favor of gun rights at a Greensboro, NC city council meeting, has been within striking distance of high elected office is “representative of an interesting pattern within the modern Republican Party,” The American Prospect said. It’s a pattern wherein one can “earn fame within the party for incendiary comments but are soon forced to backtrack once they’re in the national spotlight.” Robinson is similarly indicative of the fact that the “Republican insistence on nominating crazy people elsewhere affects us all,” said Charles Pierce at Esquire. While previous GOP candidates with their own list of controversies may have seemed at the time to be “one step beyond,” Robinson is proof that “there is no Beyond,” and “should stay on the ballot” as “the perfect GOP candidate for 2024.”
“Republicans knew Robinson was a problematic candidate,” said Noah Rothman at the National Review. “They just didn’t care.” In spite of being an “unnecessary risk” electorally, North Carolina voters “were persuaded to haul the baggage Robinson brought with him onto their own backs because Donald Trump insisted on it.” Republicans “routinely looked past Robinson’s breathtaking hypocrisy,” and — prior to last week’s report — “held him up as a champion” and an “example of America at its finest,” Billy Ball said at MSNBC. The question ultimately becomes one of whether the GOP is “suffering primarily from a candidate quality problem or a base voter problem” said The Bulwark.
Others, including Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), have attempted to balance distancing themselves and the party from Robinson, while retaining the capacity to support him should his political fortunes change. “Should every Republican in the country be held responsible for this guy?,” said Graham during a recent interview with NBC’s Kristen Welker. “I would say no.” At the same time, Robinson has an “obligation” to defend himself against CNN’s recent reporting.
What next?
Robinson’s extremism is a “bit much even for the modern-day GOP,” and his “campaign appears to be in freefall” after CNN’s investigation, said New York magazine. The real question is whether that free fall will affect Robinson alone, or drag other Republicans down with him. National GOP groups are already “pulling financial support” for Robinson’s campaign, CNN said. Even Donald Trump’s campaign is “alarmed” at the idea that Robinson’s “political baggage and incendiary rhetoric will be a drag” on the presidential ticket, Axios said.
Republicans seem “uninterested in trying to change the dynamic” that led to Robinson’s ascension through the GOP ranks, The Bulwark said. That disinterest means “more often situations like this will cause headaches for party bosses around the country.” Robinson’s scandal might close the “pipeline from viral comments at city council meetings to running for the highest office in a swing state,” The American Prospect said. But “given the dynamics in the Republican Party, maybe not.”