Editorial: Mark Robinson should quit the race for NC governor. If not, the GOP should shun him

Republican Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson only has one decent option now: Quit the race for governor.

But despite a damning CNN report Thursday on his shocking internet postings from years ago, Robinson said he won’t take the decent option. Instead, he’s staying in the race and compounding the damage from the CNN report by denying it.

Robinson says the comments posted on the message board of the porn website “Nude Africa” between 2008 and 2012 are not his. But the CNN report does a meticulous job of showing that the person posting under the screen name “minisoldr” is Mark Robinson.

The posts include minisoldr describing himself a “black NAZI!” and expressing support for reinstating slavery. He called Martin Luther King Jr. “Martin Lucifer Koon!” and a “commie bastard.” He told the story of how he peeped on girls in a public gym shower when he was 14. Despite Robinson’s recent statements condemning transsexuals, minisoldr posted that “I like watching tranny on girl porn!”

CNN said many of the postings attributed to Robinson were so graphic, it only included a sampling. Thank you, CNN.

Enough is enough. Robinson had already drawn national attention for his outrageous comments and past social media postings about gay people, the Civil Rights Movement and Jewish people. He’s gone from being an embarrassment to Republicans to being a stain on the entire state. Once he was obnoxious and mean. Now he has become creepy.

If Robinson won’t go on his own, Republican leaders should explore ways to revoke his nomination. Failing that, they should call for all Republicans to abstain from voting in the gubernatorial race, or, better yet, vote for the Democrat in the race, state Attorney General Josh Stein. It will only add to the state’s embarrassment if, after all this, Robinson receives millions of votes.

As it is, the shame that covers Robinson is shared in part by his party. It was clear since before he won his first public office four years ago that Robinson was unfit to serve. He has a history of bankruptcies, unpaid taxes and inflammatory social media posts.

Despite no experience in government, he won statewide office largely because of a fiery pro-gun speech he delivered at the Greensboro City Council. The speech went viral and made him the darling of the National Rifle Association.

Once in office, Robinson demonstrated his unfitness time and again. He set up a task force to monitor teachers who, he said, indoctrinate children with liberal ideology. He ranted against abortion even after he admitted he supported his wife getting an abortion before they were married.

Robinson’s incendiary statements drew national attention and Republican applause. Former President Donald Trump called him “Martin Luther King on steroids.”

State Senate leader Phil Berger – the state’s most powerful Republican – waded into a three-way Republican gubernatorial primary to endorse Robinson. “I just think he’s got a good head on his shoulders. I think philosophically, he’s generally in the right place,” Berger said.

In the Republican primary, voters rejected two more qualified candidates – state Treasurer Dale Folwell and businessman Bill Graham – to nominate the bellicose Robinson. MAGA voters were drawn to his Trump-like brashness and his attacks on liberals.

Now, as the Bible-evoking Robinson might say in one of his church speeches, MAGA voters are reaping what they sowed.

An overwhelming loss at the gubernatorial level could be a drag on Trump’s ability to win a state he must win to regain the presidency. He took North Carolina by only 1.3 percent in 2020.

In their MAGA fever, Republicans nominated an unfit and largely unknown person to lead the state. Now they are nearly certain to lose the governor’s race, have weakened the chances of Republicans down the ballot and have undercut Trump.

Republicans nominated Robinson because they delighted in how he “owned the libs.” Now they are scrambling to disown him.