Controversial North Carolina candidate for governor rattles Republicans in critical swing state

The political world is still reeling from a CNN report that the Republican candidate for North Carolina governor, the current Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson, posted racist and explicit messages on a pornography web site message board more than a decade ago.

While The Associated Press hasn’t confirmed the contents of the report and Robinson denied it, the piece sparked a last-minute push by some Republicans to convince Robinson to withdraw from the governor’s race in the crucial swing state.

Robinson refused to step aside, standing pat as the latest of a long line of populist, outside-the-box Republican candidates to rise in the shadow of former President Donald Trump. He’s attracted so much attention not only because his story is fascinating but because it could impact Trump’s hopes of returning to the White House in November.

An unconventional politician emerges

A former furniture factory worker, Robinson’s political career took off when he attended a Greensboro City Council meeting in 2018 and spoke out against the council’s plans to cancel a gun show in the wake of a school shooting in Florida. Robinson’s fiery defense of gun rights — “I’m going to come down here to this city council and raise hell just like these loonies from the left do until you listen to the majority of the people in this city,” he said — went viral.

Robinson left his furniture job and took up public speaking, addressing the National Rifle Association and other conservative groups. He ran for Lieutenant Governor in 2020 as a Republican, winning a statewide post that many politicians spend decades preparing for in his first campaign. Robinson swiftly began positioning himself to be the first major party Black candidate for governor in 2024, when Democrat Roy