‘The Hits Keep Coming’: Mark Robinson’s Path in North Carolina Is Looking Even Shakier, Republicans Say

Several veterans of GOP politics in North Carolina are seeing their concerns about Robinson’s candidacy for governor coming to fruition.

North Carolina Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson
North Carolina Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson has been lagging in the polls behind the Democratic candidate, Attorney General Josh Stein, in the governor’s race. Matt Rourke/AP

Some North Carolina Republicans have all but counted their party out of the governor’s race in the crucial battleground state this year.

The polls keep looking worse for Republican candidate Mark Robinson, who’s been marked with scandal after scandal (the most recent being a salacious report about his frequent visits to an adult film store, which he denies). All told, several veteran party operatives think the feat of saving his campaign seems more futile by the day. And Democrats, who predicted it all, are rubbing it in.

“For Robinson to win, he will need to be on offense for a consistent period or for Trump to considerably overperform his 2016 margin,” Republican strategist Doug Heye, who has long warned that Robinson would be toxic in a general election, told NOTUS. “Not impossible, but neither of those seem likely.”