North Carolina Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson, a self-described conspiracy theorist known for quoting Adolf Hitler, secured a victory in the state's Republican gubernatorial primary Tuesday.
Robinson will now go head-to-head with Democratic Attorney General Josh Stein to become the elected successor of Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper, who has maxed out his term limit after two consecutive terms.
Robinson had been leading in the polls against his GOP challengers, state treasurer Dale Folwell and multimillionaire Bill Graham, for months. His campaign strategy — aligning himself with former president Donald Trump and hoping the GOP frontrunner's base would flock to support him — seemed to work in the primary, but winning the November contest in a presidential election year will prove more challenging, according to HuffPost.
The lieutenant governor will certainly spend the months ahead of the election attempting to appeal to mainstream voters, which is likely to butt up against his years of parroting sexist, transphobic, Islamophobic and antisemitic rhetoric alongside a number of harmful conspiracy theories. Meanwhile, his opponent and other Democrats are poised to make those remarks a sticking point.
This is Mark Robinson.
— No Lie with Brian Tyler Cohen (@NoLieWithBTC) March 6, 2024
Republicans just nominated a literal Holocaust denier for governor of North Carolina. pic.twitter.com/Mr66HUNXa8
This year's general election is crucial for North Carolina's state lawmakers, HuffPost notes. If Robinson wins, the GOP will gain control of the House, Senate and governor's office. But if Stein wins, Democrats will at least have veto power over bills they don't support. North Carolina will also be a key swing state in the 2024 presidential election, following Trump's slim 2020 win in the state.
The former president endorsed Robinson over the weekend during a North Carolina campaign event, lauding him and proclaiming that Robinson, who is Black, is “Martin Luther King on steroids.”
Robinson has previously derided the civil rights leader as an "ersatz pastor” and “communist,” and dismissed the Civil Rights Movement as “crap.”
