Democrats hope that the scandal enveloping Mark Robinson, the GOP pick for governor in North Carolina, could not only derail Robinson\u2019s own campaign but also hurt Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump in the critical battleground state.<\/p>\n
CNN reported Thursday that Robinson, the lieutenant governor of North Carolina, was a regular commenter on a pornographic website called Nude Africa, where he praised slavery, railed against a Martin Luther King, Jr. tribute, declared \u201cI\u2019m a black NAZI!\u201d and recounted spying on women as they showered. Robinson has denied making those and other graphic sexual comments online, despite extensive links between the Nude Africa user and his public identity.<\/p>\n
Although the messages have been removed from the site, a person who had access to the site before the deletion provided The Washington Post with screenshots. The Post reviewed the messages and confirmed their contents.<\/p>\n
The potential fallout stretches far beyond the political career of the gubernatorial candidate. Both presidential candidates covet North Carolina\u2019s 16 electoral votes, and the state is critical to Trump\u2019s most plausible paths to victory in the electoral college. Polling already showed Trump neck-and-neck with Vice President Kamala Harris in the state.<\/p>\n
Harris is hoping to be the first Democrat seeking national office to win statewide in North Carolina since 2008. Her party highlighted the Trump-Robinson connection on Friday, and some Republicans pushed Robinson to drop out over the CNN report even before it published, fearful the long-struggling candidate\u2019s most recent controversy would metastasize and hurt the whole ticket.<\/p>\n
But Robinson defied pressure to leave the race ahead of a Thursday deadline, and absentee ballots with Robinson\u2019s name on them went out Friday morning to military and overseas voters, according to State Board of Elections spokesman Patrick Gannon. The North Carolina GOP rallied behind Robinson Thursday evening with a supportive statement that will test the limits of Republicans\u2019 years-long strategy of dismissing unflattering information as \u201cfake news\u201d \u2014 and their voters\u2019 willingness to look past scandal.<\/p>\n
Now Trump, who did not comment on Robinson at an event on fighting antisemitism in Washington on Thursday evening, faces awkward new questions about his support for his longtime ally. The former president is set to hold a rally in Wilmington, N.C., on Saturday afternoon. Robinson has previously joined Trump at many events, but now Trump\u2019s team has an incentive to seek distance. Robinson will not attend Trump\u2019s Saturday rally, a person familiar with the matter, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal planning, told The Post.<\/p>\n
Ed Broyhill, RNC Committeeman from North Carolina, dismissed the allegations against Robinson in an interview. He argued the porn website account was not verified as Robinson\u2019s and suggested its comments may have been taken out of context.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are other issues that have come up in the past that have been rather embarrassing for Mark, and he\u2019s overcome those and moved on,\u201d Broyhill said. \u201cSo I\u2019m holding out \u2014 my point is I stand strong. And I have all the faith in the world Mark is going to carry on.\u201d<\/p>\n
He predicted the furor would not hurt Trump: \u201cNinety-five percent of the support for Donald Trump is set in concrete and marble,\u201d he said. \u201cIt is not budging.\u201d<\/p>\n
Democrats see new opportunity in a state they have spent millions of dollars to flip blue. Trump won North Carolina by just over one percentage point in 2020, his narrowest margin of victory anywhere in the country. And Harris\u2019s replacement of Biden at the top of the ticket has made the race in North Carolina more competitive.<\/p>\n
The DNC announced that it was putting up nine billboards that link Robinson and Trump in the state. They show both candidates beaming at the camera, with Trump making a thumbs up gesture. In a quote next to the picture, Trump praises Robinson: \u201cHe\u2019s an incredible person.\u201d Five of the billboards will go up in Charlotte, the state\u2019s largest city and a Democratic stronghold.<\/p>\n
\u201cDonald Trump and Mark Robinson are two MAGA extremists cut from the same cloth,\u201d DNC Chairman Jaime Harrison said in a statement announcing the advertisements. \u201c \u2026 Make no mistake: Trump has embraced and tied himself to Robinson at every turn.\u201d<\/p>\n
The connection between the two candidates was at the center of Republican nail biting on Friday.<\/p>\n
\u201c[Robinson] will lose \u2026 The question now is, with the drip, drip, drip of scandal, does Robinson\u2019s baggage have other ballot ramifications and open a path for Kamala Harris and the state\u2019s 16 electoral college votes?\u201d conservative commentator Erick Erickson wrote on his blog.<\/p>\n
Erickson noted that Democrats pushed Biden out of the 2024 race when it became clear he probably could not win. With Robinson, he predicted, \u201chis supporters will say it\u2019s old or a lie.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina wrote on social media that Thursday \u201cwas a tough day\u201d and urged Republicans to \u201cstay focused on the races we can win\u201d \u2014 such as Trump\u2019s.<\/p>\n
Before the CNN revelations, many in the party acknowledged that Robinson was a flawed candidate and predicted he would lose. He consistently trailed Democratic nominee Josh Stein, the state attorney general, in polls. A Quinnipiac poll conducted in early September showed Stein leading Robinson by double digits, while Harris\u2019s lead over Trump was within the margin of error.<\/p>\n
But Republicans also said they saw little evidence that Robinson\u2019s underperformance was crippling Trump, who has enthusiastically praised and endorsed Robinson.<\/p>\n
Trump\u2019s campaign responded to the CNN story on Robinson with a statement that did not mention the lieutenant governor. \u201cPresident Trump\u2019s campaign is focused on winning the White House and saving this country,\u201d Trump spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said in a statement, adding: \u201cWe are confident that as voters compare the Trump record of a strong economy, low inflation, a secure border, and safe streets, with the failures of Biden-Harris, then President Trump will win the Tarheel State once again.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Harris campaign posted a mocking video Thursday that featured pictures of Trump and Robinson together. The video included clips of Trump praising Robinson, saying he is \u201clike Martin Luther King on steroids\u201d in one clip. In another, he compares Robinson to \u201ca fine wine.\u201d<\/p>\n
Best friends pic.twitter.com\/baS5sRfzIo<\/p>\n
\u2014 Kamala HQ (@KamalaHQ) September 19, 2024<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
The state\u2019s electoral votes have been tantalizingly out-of-reach for Democrats since Obama narrowly won them in 2008 for the first time in more than 30 years. Obama narrowly lost the Tar Heel state in 2012, and it went for Trump in both 2016 and 2020. Democrats have won some statewide elections in North Carolina \u2014 the governor and attorney general, Robinson\u2019s opponent, are both Democrats \u2014 but the gerrymandered state legislature remains strongly Republican.<\/p>\n
Still, Democrats hope that Harris, the first Black woman and woman of South Asian descent to be vice president, can help rebuild the multicultural coalition that propelled Obama to the White House.<\/p>\n
Doug Wilson, a Democratic strategist in North Carolina, said Friday that the latest Robinson allegations have raised his party\u2019s hopes about the state. \u201cBut Democrats also know not to spike the ball in the end zone and do a touchdown dance \u2026 We just know that North Carolina has been like Lucy and the football for us a lot of cycles. So this is just gonna make us hone in harder and go at it with even more focus, because we see right now that Republicans are exposed.\u201d<\/p>\n
Harris has visited North Carolina nine times this year, including back-to-back rallies in Charlotte and Greensboro just after her debate with Trump. Often, Robinson was a focus, a man she declared was \u201chandpicked by Donald Trump\u201d to run for governor and who she said wanted a total ban on abortion, although, like Trump, Robinson has attempted to moderate his opinion on abortion.<\/p>\n
In phone banks and chit chats with on-the-fence North Carolina voters, Democrats have been giving North Carolinians a steady diet of Robinson, saying he is Exhibit A for the extremism that will pervade the country if Trump returns to the White House.<\/p>\n
As of Friday, Republicans and Democrats have each spent more than $20 million on presidential race advertising in North Carolina, according to the tracking firm AdImpact.<\/p>\n
Republican strategists acknowledge that Harris has tightened the race but hope that voters\u2019 concerns about the economy and the border will deliver Trump victory. They note polling that shows Americans favor Trump on those issues and believe that will outweigh voters\u2019 preference for Harris on the topic of abortion.<\/p>\n
Trump\u2019s advisers note that if he holds on to North Carolina, he only needs to flip two states he lost in 2020 \u2014 Georgia and Pennsylvania \u2014 to win in November.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Democrats hope that the scandal enveloping Mark Robinson, the GOP pick for governor in North Carolina, could not only derail Robinson\u2019s own campaign but also hurt Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump in the critical battleground state. CNN reported Thursday that Robinson, the lieutenant governor of North Carolina, was a regular commenter on a pornographic website […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":9878,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9877","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9877","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9877"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9877\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9878"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9877"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9877"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9877"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}