With Robinson Candidacy, North Carolina Republicans Fear Damage to Years of Gains

Explosive posts by the Republican candidate for governor, Mark Robinson, are sending waves of anxiety through a state party that has long been tactical and disciplined.


Mark Robinson, the North Carolina Republican candidate for governor, speaking at the Republican National Convention this summer. Jamie Kelter Davis for The New York Times

By Richard Fausset, Eduardo Medina and Michael Wines
Richard Fausset reported from Atlanta, Eduardo Medina from Durham, N.C., and Michael Wines from Washington.
Sept. 20, 2024

The great Republican wave that swept the South starting in the late 20th Century — the very wave that Lyndon Johnson predicted after signing the Civil Rights Act in 1964 — came relatively late to North Carolina.

But when it finally hit in 2013, with Republicans controlling both the legislature and the governor’s mansion for the first time since Reconstruction, it did so with breathtaking force. Led by a group of savvy, tactically skilled state lawmakers, North Carolina Republicans set out to undo decades of center-left policy enshrined by Democrats, and to remake the rules of the political game in their favor.

They engaged in gerrymandering that ensured the party a near-lock on the state legislature and lopsided control of the state’s House delegation in Congress. They paved the way for a conservative state Supreme Court that upheld a strict voter ID law. And after gaining a veto-proof majority last year, they banned most abortions after 12 weeks of pregnancy.

And while Republicans lost the governorship in 2016, they had harbored hope of winning full control of state government again this year, bringing North Carolina in alignment with most other Southern states. … Then came Mark Robinson.

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