North Carolina GOP gubernatorial candidate Mark Robinson has said it himself: He’s a conspiracy theorist.
He didn’t specify in that March interview what that means in terms of what he believes. It turns out it means he has spread virtually every conspiracy theory you can think of.
Robinson, who is the state’s lieutenant governor, has said he “wouldn’t be surprised” if the 1969 moon landing was fake and the 9/11 terrorist attacks were an “inside job.” He’s “SERIOUSLY skeptical” of President John F. Kennedy’s assassination and of the 2017 mass shooting in Las Vegas. He falsely accused David Hogg, a survivor of the 2018 mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, of being a paid actor. He’s claimed that climate change is based on “junk science.”
And those are just the dangerous theories he’s echoed that have been previously reported.
In lesser-noticed social media posts, Robinson has said that news coverage of police shootings is part of a media conspiracy “designed to push US towards their new world order.” He and his wife both liked a since-deleted Facebook comment that stated, “WWG1WGA are my ‘Identity’ letters,” a reference to the QAnon rallying cry “Where we go one, we go all.” In October 2018, on a day when authorities intercepted pipe bombs intended for President Barack Obama, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and CNN, Robinson suggested on Facebook that they had done it to themselves. “If you can’t beat ’em, bomb yourself,” he wrote.
He followed that with another Facebook post claiming, “This entire ‘bombing’ story is faker than a $20 Rolex sold on a New York City sidewalk.” Months later, another post on his Facebook page parroted the conspiracy theory that the pipe bomb incident was “manufactured” and “fake.”
Robinson is also a regular proponent of conspiracies claiming the music industry is being run by Satan and the Illuminati. He has called Beyoncé’s music “satanic” and described Jay-Z as “demonic” and sent by Satan to turn people away from Jesus. He suggested that the 2014 Boko Haram kidnapping of schoolgirls in Nigeria was orchestrated by billionaire Democratic philanthropist George Soros, a frequent target of antisemitic attacks by Republicans.
This Republican state official has also routinely pushed the “New World Order” conspiracy theory, which involves forced depopulation programs, a secretive ruling class of reptiles and “elite globalists” on a satanic mission to bring about the “end times.”
In one instance, Robinson warned on Facebook that the reality-TV shows “American Idol,” “Dancing With the Stars” and “Chopped” are a sign of an impending New World Order. He said they remind him of Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin’s “Show Trials. Where people were lined up and judged then executed.”
Yeah.
A Robinson campaign spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment on whether he stands by all of these claims.
It’s still early in the campaign season. There are other comparatively normal but still conservative GOP candidates running, including former U.S. Rep. Mark Walker and Dale Folwell, the state treasurer. But Robinson is currently the front-runner to be the GOP’s nominee for governor. How is this possible?
He has two key things going for him that other Republican candidates don’t have, said David McLennan, a political science professor at Meredith College in Raleigh, North Carolina.
He’s got name recognition, and he’s got the backing of former President Donald Trump.
“I think this does bother people on the Republican side,” McLennan said of Robinson being a wild conspiracy theorist. “They just haven’t figured out how to organize their efforts to help another candidate compete against Robinson.”
A Walker campaign spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment.
Folwell said Robinson should probably “shut up.”
“As previous north carolinian maya angelou always said when a person shows you who they are the first time, believe them,” Folwell said in an emailed statement. “Voters are exhausted with PINO’s. (Politicians in name only) who attack people and not problems. If you don’t show up, stand up or can’t explain conservatism without offending then you should shut up.”
On the Democratic side, Attorney General Josh Stein is the only major candidate to formally announce a campaign. Current Gov. Roy Cooper, a Democrat, is term-limited out in 2024.
A Stein campaign spokesperson declined comment.
Robinson has also modeled himself after Trump and appears to be trying to deflect all criticisms in the same way, said Chris Cooper, the Robert Lee Madison distinguished professor of political science and public affairs at Western Carolina University in Cullowhee.
“It’s for the same reason Trump is under four indictments and is the leading candidate for the Republican nomination for the presidency,” Cooper said. “He’s the favorite because he’s the favorite. … The inflammatory rhetoric is already baked into people’s opinions of him. We already knew he was engaged in these types of behaviors. So every news story about Robinson doesn’t really provide the voter with new information. So he can continue to weather the storm.”
Robinson is also charismatic, Cooper said, which has helped him to build a national profile and raise a lot of money. His race is a factor, too, he said.
“He’s an African American Republican at a time when many Republicans feel they are being accused of being racist for being Republicans,” he added.
Steven Greene, a political science professor at North Carolina State University in Raleigh, said Robinson simply “represents the culture war id of the Republican Party.”
“He is the Republican Party writ large,” Greene said. “One of the major themes of Trump’s campaign could be considered a conspiracy theory, which is that the 2020 presidential election was stolen. Republican primary voters have shown they are very, very willing to, shall we say, be comfortable with their political leaders holding conspiracy views.”
“He is the Republican Party writ large.”
- Steven Greene, North Carolina State University political science professor
All of the North Carolina political experts HuffPost spoke to for this story said Robinson is likely to be the GOP nominee for governor and possibly will go on to become governor, given that North Carolina is a swing state. Of the major election forecasters, the Cook Political Report rates the race as “leans Democratic,” while Inside Elections and the University of Virginia’s Crystal Ball both consider the race a tossup.
But Greene predicted that Robinson’s extremism will ultimately backfire on him, just as it did with the GOP’s gubernatorial nominee in 2020, Dan Forest.
“Dan Forest’s problem, and the reason he lost, was because he was seen as too extreme of a social conservative. Mark Robinson is Forest on steroids,” Greene said.
“We have seen ever since the elevation of Trump, Republican primary voters, again and again, time and time and time again, choosing the candidate who makes an awful general election candidate in a purple state,” he said. “My presumption is Mark Robinson will fall right into this pattern.”