Controversial North Carolina candidate for governor rattles Republicans in critical swing state
The political world is still reeling from a CNN report that the Republican candidate for North Carolina governor, the current Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson, posted racist and explicit messages on a pornography web site message board more than a decade ago.
While The Associated Press hasn’t confirmed the contents of the report and Robinson denied it, the piece sparked a last-minute push by some Republicans to convince Robinson to withdraw from the governor’s race in the crucial swing state.
Robinson refused to step aside, standing pat as the latest of a long line of populist, outside-the-box Republican candidates to rise in the shadow of former President Donald Trump. He’s attracted so much attention not only because his story is fascinating but because it could impact Trump’s hopes of returning to the White House in November.
A former furniture factory worker, Robinson’s political career took off when he attended a Greensboro City Council meeting in 2018 and spoke out against the council’s plans to cancel a gun show in the wake of a school shooting in Florida. Robinson’s fiery defense of gun rights — “I’m going to come down here to this city council and raise hell just like these loonies from the
