AMAC Exclusive – By Shane Harris
North Carolina Lieutenant Governor Mark Robinson officially announced his campaign for governor late last week, marking the beginning of what could become one of the most-watched campaigns in the country in 2024 after Robinson’s meteoric rise to political stardom in 2020.
“I’m running for governor because we the people of North Carolina need someone who understands us. We don’t need another politician,” Robinson said during his announcement speech this past Saturday. “We deserve and need to have a governor who will lead the charge against irresponsible liberal policies that would hurt our economy and our state.”
In an announcement video posted to his campaign website, Robinson touched on several issues that are expected to become major themes throughout his campaign.
The first – and one that Robinson has devoted extensive attention to during his tenure as lieutenant governor – was education. “Too many children can’t read at their grade level,” Robinson said. “They’ve been failed by an education bureaucracy that is leaving them unprepared for life once they graduate.”
“Sadly, we know our teachers aren’t respected,” Robinson continued, “and they aren’t treated or paid as the professionals that they are.”
Robinson also remarked how “shuttered factories like the ones I’ve worked for have left scars all over the small towns of North Carolina,” alluding to his own experience losing two manufacturing jobs as a result of NAFTA trade policies. Throughout his time in office, Robinson has shared his own personal struggles with joblessness and bankruptcy, using his story to highlight the need for policies that promote economic opportunity for blue-collar workers affected by globalization.
“I’m running for governor because we deserve to be represented by someone who has actually lived like us,” Robinson said. “I don’t care about the zip code you live in, the size of your paycheck, or whether you’re black, white, straight or gay. None of those things should determine your future or your child’s future.”
As recently as 2018, Robinson was a part-time student working shifts in a furniture manufacturing plant, hoping to one day become a history teacher. But after an impassioned speech before the Greensboro City Council in support of the Second Amendment went viral, Robinson became an instant star in the conservative movement.
In 2020 he secured the GOP nomination for lieutenant governor and went on to win against Democrat Yvonne Lewis Holley, becoming the first black lieutenant governor in North Carolina’s history.
Since then, Robinson’s story of overcoming personal struggle and a tough upbringing has continued to resonate with voters. As the 9th of 10 children born into a poor family, his childhood was anything but easy, particularly after his father died when Robinson was in the fifth grade. But instead of going on government welfare, Robinson’s mother got a job as a custodian to provide for her family – an inspiring example that Robinson often points to as evidence that, as his mother said, with hard work, faith, and determination, anything is possible in America.
“I was supposed to be crushed by racism as a black man in the South,” Robinson said Saturday. “I have a chance to be a symbol to others in humble beginnings, and despite what anyone else may tell you, you can achieve anything.”
Since practically the moment of his inauguration in 2021, many Republicans in the Tarheel State have excitedly anticipated the prospect of a Robinson gubernatorial run to replace incumbent Democrat Governor Roy Cooper, who is term limited. Although the GOP recently secured a supermajority in both chambers of the state legislature, Republicans have struggled to lock down the governor’s office – winning it just once since 1992, back in 2012.
Democrats will undoubtedly invest heavily in holding the governorship in a state that has become more competitive in recent cycles but has remained tantalizingly out of reach for other Democrats running statewide.
Despite many pundits predicting that North Carolina could go for Joe Biden in 2020, former President Trump won the state by nearly 75,000 votes (even as Cooper defeated his Republican challenger). Republican Ted Budd also secured a comfortable three-point victory over Democrat Cheri Beasley in the state’s U.S. Senate contest last year, again despite predictions that Beasley could flip the seat and amid an otherwise underwhelming performance for Republicans nationally.
While a few other Republicans have entered the race as well or indicated that they intend to, none have Robinson’s national profile and formidable war chest. So far, the top Democrat prospect looks to be state Attorney General Josh Stein, a self-styled “moderate” in the mold of Cooper who has in reality advanced a slate of far-left policies.
If Stein and Robinson advance to a general election showdown, it would prove a major test of North Carolina’s political identity. A win by Stein – particularly if it is accompanied by a Republican victory in the presidential race – would further confirm that the Tarheel State is solidly purple.
A Robinson victory, meanwhile, would indicate that his brand of unabashed conservatism and no-nonsense talk may be exactly the formula Republicans have been looking for to turn this southern battleground state ruby red.
Shane Harris is a writer and political consultant from Southwest Ohio. You can follow him on Twitter @Shane_Harris_.
