Right-Wing NC Governor Candidate Mark Robinson Down 2 Points From Dem Opponent

A new poll in North Carolina shows that the state’s gubernatorial race is a dead heat.

The two main candidates in the election, Attorney General Josh Stein (D) and Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson (R), have vast ideological differences. But the two are presently in a statistical tie, the new poll demonstrates.

The survey, which was commissioned by Raleigh-based television station WRAL and conducted by SurveyUSA, asked nearly 600 likely voters between March 3 and March 9 their opinions on the two candidates. The dates overlapped slightly with the date of the state gubernatorial primary election, which took place on March 5 and which saw Stein and Robinson easily win their respective party’s nominations.

Stein has a slight edge in the poll, attaining 44 percent support from voters right now versus 42 percent who back Robinson. However, 15 percent of voters are undecided, and the 4.9-point margin of error in the poll also means that the race is technically a tie at the moment.

Although both Stein and Robinson are state officials, the poll doesn’t indicate how acquainted voters are with each of the two candidates. Notably, since both won their respective positions in 2020, there were some crossover voters who backed both of them that election year, meaning that some of those voters will have to choose between one or the other in this race.

Stein may be better able to explain to voters who he is, as he has a campaign chest of around $10 million, more than double the amount Robinson presently has on hand.

The race is considered critical for both parties — current Gov. Roy Cooper is a Democrat, but Republicans have a veto-proof majority in the legislature, which has allowed them to pass far right legislation in the past year. If Robinson wins the race, he’ll undoubtedly press forward with an even more extreme right-wing agenda. If Stein wins, and if Democrats can overturn at least one seat in the state legislature, they can block far right legislation that Republicans there will likely propose.

Democrats aim to make Robinson’s background — particularly his far right commentaries and social media posts in recent years — a major point of the election. Robinson’s views could indeed sink his chances to win if more voters become aware of them, as he has expressed a number of disturbing opinions, including:

• Expressing support for ending abortion rights in the state, including celebrating the passage of a 12-week ban by saying that the “next goal is to get it down to six, and then just keep moving from there” and describing abortion as a “scourge that needs to be run out of this land”;
• Stating his disbelief in the Jewish Holocaust during World War II, describing the historically factual event as “hogwash” and complaining about people characterizing Nazis and Hitler as “evil and manipulative”;
• Ranting against the 19th amendment, which recognized the right of women to vote, arguing that it didn’t really exist and stating that he wanted the U.S. to return to a time “where women couldn’t vote”;
• Mocking victims of school shootings who have called for gun reform, describing them as “spoiled, angry, know it all CHILDREN” and “spoiled little bastards” in social media posts;
• Attacking LGBTQ people, describing homosexuality and transgender people as “filth” and expressing deep opposition to marriage equality;
• And describing the Affordable Care Act (sometimes called Obamacare) as a “concentrated effort to enslave everybody.”

Democrats, including Stein himself, have stated that their goal from now until November is to highlight these statements and others like them in order to give voters an idea of how Robinson may govern if given the chance.

“Our obligation as a campaign is to make sure that people have the information they need in order to make the right choice,” Stein said earlier this month about his GOP rival.