Source: Vanity Fair
Now that Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson’s run for governor in 2024 is in full swing, the national media is continuing to focus on the hateful Greensboro Republican who will be running in what will likely be the most expensive gubernatorial race in the country.
A new Vanity Fair article looks at what we here in North Carolina have known for years – Robinson is a right-wing MAGA bigot and would be a disaster for our state if he becomes our next governor.
Vanity Fair highlighted Robinson’s past homophobic, transphobic, antisemitic, and misogynist comments and said that “Should he be elected, the purple state could quickly spiral into a right-wing laboratory mirroring Ron DeSantis’s Florida.”
We have already seen a preview of what this could be like after Republicans, who hold a supermajority in both chambers of the state legislature, recently overrode six of Gov. Roy Cooper’s vetoes. With Robinson as governor, Republicans won’t have to worry about overriding any vetoes.
The article looked at former Gov. Pat McCrory’s 2016 reelection loss to current Gov. Cooper as a possible outcome for 2024, because as writer Abigail Tracy pointed out, Cooper won “a bitter 2016 governor’s race that was defined by debates over police brutality and LGBTQ+ rights, namely a bill limiting transgender bathroom rights—issues that have, arguably, increased in their saliency over the years since.”
Crime and policing were key planks of the Republican Party platform in last year’s midterms and anti-trans bills have exploded across the country with 560 filed in 49 states so far this year.
“Mark Robinson is the poster child for how not to treat any human being,” Philip Shulman, spokesperson for American Bridge, told Vanity Fair. “His venomous views are going to be a drag on his campaign and whomever has the misfortune of aligning themselves with him—including former presidents.”
While it would make sense that Robinson’s outrageously offensive past (and present) would harm him in a state as purple as North Carolina, we also live in a time where nothing makes sense and, as Donald Trump proved in 2016, whether Republican voters genuinely agree with the candidate or not, they’re still going to mark their ballot for the person with the “R” next to their name.
North Carolina, which seems to be a perfect microcosm of the political battles that will likely be at the forefront of next year’s election, will be one of the most crucial battleground states in 2024.
