MOUNT AIRY, N.C. (AP) — North Carolina’s Republican Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson suffered burns Friday night while attending a truck show while campaigning for governor, his campaign said.
Robinson was attending the Mayberry Truck Show in Mount Airy when he was injured, campaign spokesman Mike Lonergan said in a statement.
Robinson was treated at Northern Regional Hospital in Mount Airy for second-degree burns, he added.
“He is in good spirits, appreciates the outpouring of well wishes and is excited to be the first to return to the campaign trail,” Lonergan said Saturday morning.
Lonergan did not immediately respond to text messages seeking details of how and where the burns occurred. Robinson had suspended his campaign with Moore County Republicans as of Friday morning. Four stops are scheduled for Saturday.
Robinson, the lieutenant governor since 2021, is running against Democratic gubernatorial candidate Josh Stein, the current attorney general. Current Governor Roy Cooper, a Democrat, was barred from running for office this fall due to term limits.
Many Republicans have recently distanced themselves from Robinson following a September 19 CNN report alleging that he posted strongly worded racist and sexual comments on an online message board. A dozen staffers from his campaign or his lieutenant governor’s office have resigned over the fallout from the report.
Robinson, who has faced criticism for other inflammatory comments, denied writing the posts more than a decade ago and has hired a law firm to investigate.
Located about 100 miles (161 kilometers) north of Charlotte near the Virginia border, Mount Airy is where the late television star Andy Griffith grew up. The community served as the inspiration for the fictional town of Mayberry in “The Andy Griffith Show” that aired in the 1960s. City leaders have embraced that history with tributes and festivals related to the show.
