North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein defeated Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson (R-NC) Tuesday in the state’s gubernatorial race.
Stein led Robinson 53%-42% with about a quarter of the ballots counted.
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Stein will replace outgoing Gov. Roy Cooper (D-NC). The Tar Heel State marked the only Democratic-held governorship up for election in the 2024 cycle.
Robinson had seen his fair share of scandal during the campaign. The sitting lieutenant governor was endorsed by former President Donald Trump early in the cycle, but he made a string of inflammatory remarks during the early days of his campaign, and a damning report from CNN over the summer all but ended the race.
The CNN report detailed Robinson’s past history of commenting on a pornographic website, where he defended slavery and referred to himself as a “Black Nazi.”
Stein led Robinson by 17 percentage points in the final New York Times/Siena College poll released Sunday. The North Carolina attorney general scored particularly well with women, pulling 56% support compared to just 38% support for Robinson, and voters under 30, who favored him by 30 points. Furthermore, Stein had 16% support of self-identifying Republicans and 61% of independents.
The Washington Examiner spoke to a number of Republicans voting early in North Carolina who had mixed feelings about Robinson.
Jackie Pitts of SouthPark, a suburb of Charlotte, North Carolina, has voted for Trump in every election since 2016, including this cycle, but she said Robinson’s scandals led her to vote for Stein in late October.
“My son-in-law told me he was a moderate, and he had a fundraiser for him,” she explained. “It’s a mess.”
Linda Gillespie, another SouthPark resident, similarly split her ticket for Trump and Stein but said that she did so because she agreed with Stein’s policies and acknowledged his record.
“I read what he’s done, and yeah, I agree with his policies on what he’s done,” she said. “I want to vote for the best candidate. That’s why I look at it. So whether they’re Democrat or Republican, it’s just — the big thing is just doing the research.”
John DeBerry, who lives in Matthews, North Carolina, did vote all Republican but told the Washington Examiner he has “concerns” about Robinson.
“He may have questionable character, but at the end of the day, everybody needs to be on the same page to get some real changes done,” he said. “And I want as many Republicans in there so they can control the House and the Senate and we can actually make some real changes.”
“It was tough, but I went straight ticket,” information technology professional J.W. Sams said.
Trump and North Carolina Republicans held Robinson at arm’s length since he refused to end his candidacy. State party officials removed Robinson from some voter education literature before early voting began earlier this month, though his yard signs remained on display across the state.
Robinson did not campaign alongside Trump at any of his events in North Carolina this week, and his last appearance with Trump was in August.
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The former president dodged questions about Robinson’s candidacy during one of his final campaign stops in North Carolina late last month.
“I’m not familiar with the state of the race right now,” he told reporters. “I haven’t seen it.”