Donald Trump is riding back into the White House partly on a wave generated by Christian Nationalists. But not every candidate who tried to harness that power was successful.
Take Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson of North Carolina. Hoping to become the state’s next governor, Robinson ran hard to the right and anchored his campaign on divisive “culture war” issues.
Robinson employed crude, hateful attacks on LGBTQ+ people. “There’s no reason anybody anywhere in America should be telling any child about transgenderism, homosexuality, any of that filth,” he ranted during a 2021 sermon. “And yes, I called it filth. And if you don’t like that I called it filth, come see me and I’ll explain it to you.”
A few months later, Robinson called LGBTQ+ people “maggots” and “flies” and added, “I don’t care how much you cut yourself up, drug yourself up and dress yourself up, you still either one of two things – you either a man or a woman.”
That just scratches the surface. The Advocate has a long list of Robinson’s offensive comments about LGBTQ+ people.
Robinson also attacked public education and advised parents to pull their kids out of public schools.
“If they won’t do right, you need to come out from among them, make your own school,” Robinson said during a speech he delivered in July 2023. “Do not turn your children over to these wicked people.”
Trump carried North Carolina, but Robinson lost to state Attorney General Josh Stein, who will become North Carolina’s first Jewish governor. The race wasn’t particularly close. Stein captured nearly 55% of the vote to Robinson’s 40%. (Third-party candidates took the rest.) Allegations that Robinson frequented porn shops in the 1990s and early 2000s – long after he says he had embraced fundamentalist Christianity – and that he referred to himself as a “black Nazi” on an adult-themed message board probably did not help.
Tuesday night was tough for a lot of us, but we’re going to roll up our sleeves and get to work battling Christian Nationalists in Washington, D.C., and around the country. It’s a small comfort to know that Robinson won’t be among them. North Carolinians looked at what he had to offer and decided it was a bridge too far.
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