NC governor race: Mark Robinson called himself ‘black NAZI’

The GOP nominee said Thursday that he is not dropping out of the race.

North Carolina Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson. Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images

By Lauren Markoe September 19, 2024

Mark Robinson, the Republican candidate for governor in North Carolina, known for his incendiary remarks about minority groups and women, vowed to stay in the race today after CNN published a story that said he had called himself a “black NAZI!” on a pornographic messaging board and expressed support for reinstating slavery. If elected, Robinson would be the first Black governor of the state.

Robinson, now lieutenant governor, said he is staying in the race and denied making the comments, which pre-date his time in office. They were made under a username that CNN wrote it “was able to identify as Robinson by matching a litany of biographical details and a shared email address between the two.”

Writing in a forum discussing Black Republicans in October 2010, Robinson stated: “I’m a Black Nazi!” That same month, Robinson wrote in another post that he supported the return of slavery.

“Slavery is not bad. Some people need to be slaves. I wish they would bring it (slavery) back. I would certainly buy a few,” he wrote.

In March 2012, according to the CNN story, Robinson wrote that he preferred the leadership of Adolf Hitler over that of then President Barack Obama. “I’d take Hitler over any of the sh*t that’s in Washington right now!”

The North Carolina governor’s race has been tight, with polls favoring one, and then the other candidate, and Democrat Josh Stein appearing to pull ahead more recently. A recent WRAL poll of likely voters showed 51% support Stein and 37% support Robinson, with 11% undecided. If elected, Stein would be the first Jewish governor of the state.

Robinson has been accused of invoking Nazis and antisemitism before — charges he denies — in past remarks and social media posts, including:

A 2017 Facebook post in which he wrote: “I am so sick of seeing and hearing people STILL talk about Nazis and Hitler and how evil and manipulative they were,” he wrote. “NEWS FLASH PEOPLE, THE NAZIS (National Socialist) ARE GONE! We did away with them.”
A 2017 Facebook post in which he wrote that “there is a REASON the liberal media fills the airwaves with programs about the NAZI and the ‘6 million Jews’ they murdered,” placing the number of Jews killed in the Holocaust in scare quotes.
A 2018 Facebook post in which wrote that “this foolishness about Hitler disarming MILLIONS of Jews and then marching them off to concentration camps is a bunch of hogwash.”
In 2019 Robinson agreed with a podcast host’s spreading of a conspiracy theory that Jewish bankers are one of the “Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse” and that China, Muslims and the CIA are the others. “That’s exactly right,” Robinson said. “It’s amazing to me that we live in this age of information where you can go online and you can find all this information, and it’s not hidden from anybody.”
In a 2021 Facebook post he wrote that an “agnostic Jew” in Hollywood made the Black Panther film to “pull the shekels out of your Schvartze pockets.”

Robinson won the lieutenant governor’s race with nearly 52% of the vote in 2020, delighting many GOP voters with his fiery brand of Christian conservatism. He called abortion “killing a child because you weren’t responsible enough to keep your skirt down” in a 2018 Facebook post; Robinson has also acknowledged paying for the mother of his own unborn child to have an abortion in 1989.

Jewish issues in North Carolina

Stein, a member of Temple Beth Or, a Reform congregation in Raleigh, was the first Jewish candidate to win a statewide race when he became attorney general in 2016 but has not highlighted his faith on the campaign trail.

North Carolina’s 49,000 Jews make up less than 1% of the electorate, but Jewish concerns are making news in the state this year, thanks to the gubernatorial race.

Israel is also an issue in North Carolina. More than 88,000 Democrats, or 12% of party members, voted “no preference” in the Democratic presidential primary rather than vote for Biden. But voters have exercised the option in the past, with 21% voting “no preference” rather than vote for Barack Obama when he ran for reelection in 2012.

This year, the “no preference” movement is seen as a protest of Biden’s support for Israel’s war on Gaza. And while Robinson has trumpeted support for Israel — despite the fact that he’s also had to deny being antisemitic — Stein has had to tread more carefully so as not to alienate left-wing Democrats. In response to pro-Palestinian campus protests, Stein has defended the right to free speech while speaking out against violence and antisemitism; he’s also said Israel has the right to defend itself but should “minimize” the impact of the war on civilians in Gaza.

Thursday is the last day for North Carolina candidates to withdraw their candidacies, though they would remain on the ballot.

National politicians are watching North Carolina, a swing state, particularly closely to see how voters’ decisions in statewide races may reflect on the presidential race, and vice versa. Former President Donald Trump narrowly won the state in 2016 and 2020. Obama narrowly won it in 2008, and lost it by two percentage points in 2012.

Beth Harpaz and Jacob Kornbluh contributed to this story.

Lauren Markoe is news editor of the Forward. A Bronx native, she reported for The Patriot Ledger, several McClatchy newspapers in the South, and Religion News Service, where she was also managing editor. She also produced live radio shows at WAMU in Washington, D.C., where she lives.

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