A New Champion of Freedom Rises in North Carolina

AMAC Exclusive – By Shane Harris

With the 2022 midterm elections now behind us, it’s not too early to start looking ahead to 2024 and the key races that could reshape the American political landscape. Following some disappointing results for conservatives this November – particularly in gubernatorial contests – the GOP will be looking to rebound two years from now. One state that looks particularly promising for a flip is North Carolina, where incumbent Republican Lieutenant Governor Mark Robinson is viewed by many as a rising star within the party and a strong potential candidate to replace Democrat Governor Roy Cooper.

Robinson first came to prominence in 2018 following an impromptu and impassioned speech before the Greensboro City Council as a private citizen in favor of gun rights. A lifelong Greensboro resident, Robinson told the Council that proposed new Second Amendment restrictions would not have an effect on the criminals perpetrating gun crimes, but would instead only harm the vast majority of law-abiding gun owners. “We are the first ones taxed and the last ones considered, and the first ones punished when things like this [shooting] happen,” Robinson admonished. “Our rights are the ones that are being taken away.” Robinson’s speech ultimately drew the crowd to its feet in a standing ovation.

The video of that speech has now been viewed more than two hundred million times and earned Robinson a chance to speak at the National Rifle Association Leadership Forum later that year. It also caught the attention of Republicans in North Carolina and helped launch his political career, where he secured the party’s nomination for lieutenant governor among a crowded field in 2020.

In the 2020 general election, Robinson accomplished the rare feat of winning the lieutenant governorship of a state even as a Democrat won the governor’s race. In addition, he became the first African American to win the post in North Carolina, earning more votes than even President Trump and incumbent Senator Thom Tillis – this despite the fact that former New York City Mayor and failed 2020 presidential candidate Michael Bloomberg poured millions of dollars into the race in an effort to defeat Robinson.

His impressive showing has inspired calls for him to run for governor in 2024, something that Robinson says he is “95% sure” he will do. That would be welcome news for North Carolina Republicans, who lost the last two gubernatorial elections in 2020 and 2016 to Mr. Cooper, despite Trump winning the state in both those years.

While Robinson first gained fame for his stance on Second Amendment freedoms – something that has continued to be an important part of his platform as lieutenant governor – voters learned throughout his 2020 campaign that he is a staunch defender conservative values more broadly. “Our message was simple,” Robinson told the New York Post after his win. “We’re 100 percent pro-life, we stand up for our Second Amendment, our God-given right to self-defense, school choice, caring for our veterans and standing up for law enforcement and law and order.”

As Robinson shared throughout his campaign, his upbringing continues to inform his politics. The 9th of 10 children, he grew up extremely poor in Greensboro. His mother, despite having only a fifth-grade education and experiencing frequent abuse from Robinson’s alcoholic father, instilled in her children the importance of deep faith in God and the value of hard work. According to the biography on Robinson’s official website, he “credits his mother’s leadership for cultivating a foundation for his faith, and an understanding that with hard work he could achieve anything.”

That faith has carried over into Robinson’s political career and has become a central component of his message. Robinson starts off every speaking engagement by thanking God, both for the opportunity he has been given and for allowing him to live in the United States of America, which he proudly calls “the greatest nation in the world.” Much to the chagrin of the radical secularist movement in America today, Robinson has also repeatedly asserted that the United States will always be “a Christian nation.” “If you don’t like it” Robinson recently said at one event for a group that encourages pastors to consider running for public office, “I’ll buy your plane, train, or automobile ticket right up out of here.”

In large part thanks to his faith, both in God and his country, Robinson graduated from high school and served in the Army Reserves. He subsequently worked in the manufacturing sector in North Carolina, where he lost employment twice after the company he worked for shipped his job overseas during the implementation of NAFTA. As someone who witnessed the devastating results of such globalist policies first-hand, Robinson has been a strong advocate for the “America First” approach to trade relations advanced by President Trump that helped revitalize the U.S. manufacturing sector.

Robinson has also proved to be a strong advocate for parents’ rights in classrooms and keeping left-wing ideologies like Critical Race Theory out of K-12 schools. He was one of the first state-level officeholders to sign ‘The 1776 Pledge’ from the group 1776 Action, in which he promised to promote policies that “respect our founding principles of liberty and equality [and] have a sense of American history that is both truthful and inspiring.” Just a few days before Election Day this year, Robinson spoke before a raucous crowd at a rally for 1776 Action and Republican Senate nominee Ted Budd, where he promised that “we’re going to protect our kids and we’re going to get our kids right, come hell or high water.”

Robinson’s commitment to stopping indoctrination in classrooms hasn’t been limited to strong rhetoric, either. Last year, Robinson announced the creation of the Fairness and Accountability in the Classroom for Teachers and Students (F.A.C.T.S) Task Force. The purpose of the group is to “provide support for parents, teachers, and most importantly, students who are willing to stand up for North Carolina’s future by exposing indoctrination in the classroom and ensuring that our students are taught how to think – not what to think.”

Robinson is equally strong when it comes to law enforcement. He’s headlined several Back the Blue rallies in opposition to calls to Defund the Police, blasted anti-cop sentiments as a cause for rising crime in liberal cities, and advocated for a tough-on-crime approach to law and order.

Robinson has also delivered powerful testimony before the House Judiciary Committee on voting rights, calling it “preposterous” to suggest that Black Americans can’t figure out how to obtain a free ID in order to vote. “The notion that Black people must be protected from a free ID to secure their votes is not only insane, it is insulting,” he told the panel. “It should be about integrity, and not power.”

Unsurprisingly, Robinson draws a crowd nearly everywhere he goes in North Carolina and is quickly becoming one of the most sought-after speakers in the conservative movement today. Anyone who hears him speak, whether they agree with his politics or not, instantly understands his appeal.

At a time when many establishment Republicans routinely cave to pressure from the media and cancel culture, Robinson refuses to apologize for what he believes in. “We have allowed other people to tell our story for far too long” Robinson told the Rockingham County Republican convention earlier this year. “We are the champions of freedom in this nation.” That’s the message that won Robinson his current office – and it may be the key to helping him and many other Republicans win elected office throughout the country in the years to come.

Shane Harris is a writer and political consultant from Southwest Ohio. You can follow him on Twitter @Shane_Harris_.