The GOP flamethrower with a right-wing vision for North Carolina

As Mark Robinson completed his meteoric six-year rise from conservative Internet sensation to Republican candidate for governor of North Carolina, he worked relentlessly to sell his political vision to evangelical Christians.

Traveling from church to church and thundering on social media, he condemned ‘transgenderism’ and ‘homosexuality’ as ‘trash’. He said that Christians should be led by men, not women. And on at least one occasion, he explicitly called for upending the American tradition on God’s role in government.

“People talk about the separation of church and state,” Mr. Robinson, lieutenant governor of North Carolina, said in a speech in October. “I’m trying to find that phrase somewhere in our Constitution. I’m trying to find it somewhere in our Declaration of Independence. I try to find it in the writings of any patriot, anywhere, but I can’t. And I can’t do that, because it doesn’t exist.”

He concluded: “There is no separation between church and state.”

Robinson’s long history of inflammatory statements has generated a barrage of headlines since he became the Republican standard-bearer in this year’s most closely watched race for governor. But underlying his combative statements on race, abortion, education and religion is an exceptionally right-wing worldview – with deep roots in modern evangelical Christianity – that, if elected, would make him one of America’s most conservative governors .

Mr. Robinson has telegraphed, often in bombastic terms, how far to the right he would try to push North Carolina, supporting a ban on all abortions once a heartbeat is detected and calling for the arrest of transgender women if they use the bathroom not use their home. gender assigned at birth, and pushing for the introduction of prayer in schools.

As he runs to replace term-limited Democrat Roy Cooper and wants to give Republicans full control of the state government, Mr. Robinson has shown no sign that he intends to extend his message to the general elections in November. He may see a plausible path to victory through his appeals to the Christian Right, given North Carolina’s huge evangelical community: About 35 percent of adults in the state identify as evangelical Protestants, according to the Pew Research Center.

Yet Democrats portray Mr. Robinson as radical — “dreary and divisive, consumed by resentment and hatred,” as his November opponent, Josh Stein, the state’s attorney general, said in his victory speech this month. And even some Republicans worry he will struggle to win.

“Governors need to be able to project stability in solving people’s problems,” said Paul Shumaker, a veteran Republican strategist in North Carolina. “And the question will be how, given Mark Robinson’s comments, how can he project stability by addressing the issues that people expect their governor to address?”

His approach resembles that of former President Donald J. Trump, whose message is also more likely to increase grassroots turnout than win over moderate or independent voters — and who has also targeted evangelicals. The former president told pastors at a Christian media gathering last month that he would unleash their political influence, promising: “You’re going to use that power at a level you’ve never used before.”

Like Mr. Trump, Mr. Robinson has turned incendiary comments into a political calling card.

He has made comments widely regarded as anti-Semitic. He once quoted Adolf Hitler on Facebook. He described the Parkland school shooting survivors who pushed for gun control as “spoiled, angry, know-it-all kids.”

And Mr. Robinson, his state’s first elected black lieutenant governor, has disparaged the African-American community as one that “celebrates the lawlessness and violence that is destroying its future right before their eyes.” He also called black Americans “hypocrites who remain silent while they kill each other in abortion clinics and gang shootings, but then raise hell when a white cop shoots a black criminal.”

A spokesman for Mr. Robinson, Mike Lonergan, said in a statement that the candidate was “a man who is very bold and outspoken about his Christian faith” and added that as lieutenant governor, Mr. Robinson believed “we are not living in a theocracy, we live in a constitutional republic.”

“If and when he becomes Governor, he will take the oath and duties of his office with the utmost respect, and work to make North Carolina better for people from all backgrounds and walks of life; by growing our economy, reforming our schools and creating a culture of living that does more to support mothers and families,” said Mr Lonergan.

Mr. Robinson, 55, a former furniture factory worker who is married with two children, burst onto the political scene with a fiery speech defending gun rights at a 2018 Greensboro City Council meeting. collected millions of online views. He quickly capitalized on that fame by making appearances at gun rallies, then ran for lieutenant governor, winning the position in 2020.

Mr. Robinson has the advantage of being in a right-leaning state that has voted Republican in every presidential election since 2008. Still, Democrats, including President Biden, see North Carolina as newly competitive thanks to rapid demographic changes, with more and more people of color moving there. .

The state has also proven reluctant to elect a Republican as leader, as only one has been elected to the office of governor since 1993.

That lone GOP governor, Pat McCrory, said in an interview that Mr. Robinson was part of a growing trend of candidates who “tell people what they want to hear, not necessarily what they need to hear.” He added that fuss and controversy were not necessarily attractive in a governor’s race.

When voters look at Mr. Robinson, Mr. McCrory asked, “will they see a CEO?”

Some Republican leaders in the state say they have asked Mr. Robinson and his team to address his more troubling past comments. They fear he will alienate moderate voters and miss out on vital funding, while Mr. Stein and allied groups are widely expected to outshine Mr. Robinson.

“We’re going to have a robust conversation about Mark – about where he’s going, about what he can or should do to address the issues in front of him because he has to tackle them head-on,” said Wayne Schaeffer, the chairman of the Bladen County Republican Party.

Mr. Robinson has often appeared at evangelical churches, where he espouses some of his most conservative views.

“That baby in your womb is not a clump of cells, and if you kill that child, you are guilty of murder,” he said in August 2021 at the Upper Room Church of God in Christ in Raleigh.

That same summer, he told congregants at Asbury Baptist Church in Seagrove, N.C., that “there is no reason why anyone anywhere in America should have to tell a child about transgenderism, homosexuality, or any of that filth. And yes, I called it filth.”

As lieutenant governor, Mr. Robinson also holds a seat on the State Board of Education. Shortly after taking office in 2021, he convened a task force “prove” that racial and sexual “indoctrination” prevailed in North Carolina schools, soliciting complaints from parents through an online portal.

They poured in, and the task force report was filled with anonymous anecdotes about racial and LGBTQ issues happening in schools, as well as some accusations of negative teachings about Christians.

Based on this conservative response, the state legislature passed a bill in 2022 to limit how racism and sexism were taught. Mr. Cooper vetoed the measure.

Mr. Robinson has also blamed the lack of formalized religion in public schools as a reason for social problems such as school shootings.

“Don’t you think that if you were to sing ‘Amazing Grace’ in class before school started each day, give some praise to God and introduce His word to that school, His wisdom would come back into those schools, maybe those schools? wouldn’t he be shot in the first place?” said Mr. Robinson at an evangelistic event in November 2021.

During his time in office, he regularly met with religious groups. In January 2023, he met with the NC Values ​​Coalition, a conservative organization, to discuss banning abortion once a heartbeat is detected – which is usually around six weeks, before many women know they are pregnant.

Intrigued, Mr. Robinson asked which lawmakers needed encouragement to support such a measure, according to data obtained by American Oversight, a watchdog group.

The NC Values ​​Coalition followed with sample legislation, targeting nine senators and 26 state representatives. Mr. Robinson’s chief of staff distributed the list to other members of his office to review, the records show.

Although a so-called heartbeat bill ultimately failed to pass the legislature, Republicans used their supermajority to pass a bill. Twelve-week abortion ban in May.

On one of the biggest priorities for Mr. Trump and his loyal followers — denying the legitimacy of the 2020 election — Mr. Robinson has kept a little more distance.

He has supported legislation that would tighten voting laws and give Republicans more control over local election boards. And he testified before the U.S. House of Representatives against a Democratic-backed election bill.

But election activists in North Carolina say he has sent them mixed signals, expressing openness to meeting with them while declining invitations to join their internal calls and meetings. He also ignored their calls for a “forensic audit” of the 2020 results, they said.

“He gives great speeches, but not about our problems,” said Jay DeLancy, who founded a group that pushed unsubstantiated claims of widespread voter fraud.

Still, he said he planned to support Mr. Robinson in the fall.

Eduardo Medina reporting contributed.