By all available measures, Republican Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson was already losing the North Carolina gubernatorial race. The question was less whether he would fail and more about the margin of his impending defeat.
But the latest revelations about the extremist candidate have raised a whole different set of questions, including whether Robinson’s campaign can continue.
That’s what usually happens when CNN finds evidence of a candidate for governor posting on a pornography website’s message board describing himself as a “black Nazi” who doesn’t think slavery is necessarily a “bad thing” and who enjoys transgender porn. (Robinson has denied the accuracy of the reporting.)
The day after CNN’s report hit the public, Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign seized the opportunity. The New York Times reported:
The Harris campaign released a new television ad in North Carolina that attempts to pair former President Donald J. Trump with Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson, who is under pressure to withdraw from the race for governor after CNN reported on offensive messages he said he posted on an online adult forum. The ad juxtaposes images of Trump paying tribute to Robinson with the lieutenant governor condemning women who have had abortions for not being “responsible enough to keep their skirts down.” The ad’s narrator concludes: “Donald Trump and Mark Robinson: They’re both wrong for North Carolina.”
It’s an ad North Carolina residents are likely to see more of in the coming days.
And more importantly, it’s not just Team Harris. Less than a day after the right-wing candidate faced another round of brazen headlines, the Democratic National Committee also unveiled new ads — including billboards — linking Robinson to Trump.
The point, as an NBC News report explained, is not subtle: Democrats don’t just want to remind North Carolina voters of Robinson’s scandals; they want to tie the former president to Robinson’s sinking ship. There are multiple paths to the White House this year, but almost everyone agrees that if the Republican ticket falls short in the Tar Heel State, Donald Trump won’t be in office next year.
Even JD Vance admitted on NBC’s “Meet the Press” last weekend: “It’s very hard for us to win unless we get North Carolina.”
That’s one reason Democrats were so happy about Robinson’s latest scandal: The more North Carolinians who rally behind Attorney General Josh Stein’s campaign for governor this year, the greater the chance that Harris will win the state, too.
At least that’s the theory. Recent history shows that North Carolinians have been willing to split their ballots, voting for one party’s gubernatorial candidate while supporting the other party’s presidential candidate. That happened in 2016 and 2020, and it could certainly happen again in 2024.
But as Robinson struggles, it’s not surprising that Democrats want to make the most of the opportunity.
This article was originally published on MSNBC.com
