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'God formed me' to fight LGBTQ issues, NC's Mark Robinson says as 2024 governor's race looms

As he prepares for an expected campaign for governor next year, North Carolina Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson continues to amp up rhetoric against gay, lesbian and transgender people that has become a key part of his political brand.

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By
Will Doran
, WRAL state government reporter

As he prepares for an expected campaign for governor next year, North Carolina Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson continues to amp up rhetoric against gay, lesbian and transgender people that has become a key part of his political brand.

Robinson said this Sunday during a church service outside Charlotte that God created him specifically to fight against the push for LGBTQ rights and visibility, which he says is turning America into a “hellhole.”

“I was not crafted to be Mr. Nicey-Nice,” Robinson said. “... God formed me because he knew there was going to be a time when God’s learning was going to be intolerable to the wicked. When children were going to be dragged down to go see the drag show. When pornography was going to be presented to our children in schools.”

Later on, he also slammed Christian churches that are accepting toward gay and lesbian people.

“Makes me sick every time I see it — a church that flies that Rainbow flag, which is a direct spit in the face of God almighty,” he said.

Robinson recently announced a rally in Alamance County next month, where he promised a big announcement — potentially his campaign for governor in 2024, which he has repeatedly hinted at but never formally confirmed.

The North Carolina Democratic Party criticized Robinson in a press release Friday, invoking the massive economic losses North Carolina suffered in the wake of a 2016 law that regulated the use of public bathrooms, which was seen as discriminatory to transgender people.

“The lieutenant governor’s comments are exactly the type of hate that would send new business running for the hills and hurt future opportunities for North Carolina families,” Democratic Party spokeswoman Kate Frauenfelder said.

Spokespeople for Robinson’s campaign, and for his office, did not respond to requests for comment.

The backlash to the 2016 bathroom bill, known as HB2, helped Democrat Roy Cooper win that year’s governor’s race, defeating Republican incumbent Gov. Pat McCrory, who was a strong defender of the law.

Cooper won reelection in 2020 and is now term-limited, leaving the governor’s office open in 2024. Democratic Attorney General Josh Stein is so far the only major candidate from either party to formally announce a campaign for governor.

If he does run, Robinson would be the favorite to win the GOP primary. His far-right views on gay rights, guns and the COVID-19 pandemic are popular among the party’s base, although they’ve led to whispers in some Republican circles that they might make him unable to win the general election.

Republicans let Robinson deliver the party’s official response to Cooper’s recent State of the State speech. Robinson was much less fiery than normal. He spoke about policy issues and called for calmer political rhetoric from all sides.

It led to many asking which version of Robinson voters might see on the campaign trail. During his speech Sunday he seemed to answer that question directly: “I talk to people sometimes and they tell me, ‘You know, I like you and everything. But I think you should be a little nicer.’”

He then added, incredulously: “Nicer? … When I stand up and turn my television set on and what I see is so filthy I can’t even let my grandchildren watch, ‘nice’ goes out the window.”

In addition to his anti-LGBTQ views, Robinson has previously made headlines in the past for antisemitic remarks — like when he was a guest on a podcast hosted by an alleged cult leader in 2020, who talked about how Jewish bankers are working with China, Islamic leaders and the Central Intelligence Agency to control the world.

Robinson responded: “That’s exactly right. 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.”

On Sunday, Robinson appeared to defend beliefs like that again, although he didn’t directly reference that podcast appearance, or other past antisemitic remarks.

“Folks will get mad and say ‘Oh you’re just a conspiracy theorist,’” he said. “OK, I’m going to tell you right now, conspiracy theorists are 42-0. We’re undefeated right now, folks.”

Stein, Robinson’s potential opponent in 2024, is Jewish.

Robinson’s speech was at Trinity Baptist Church in Mooresville. The church’s pastor is former politician Mark Harris. A Republican, Harris initially appeared to have won election in 2018 to a seat in Congress — until evidence of a coordinated election fraud scheme came to light. Multiple people working for Harris’ campaign were later charged with crimes; Harris was not.

Harris praised Robinson to his congregation Sunday, saying “Mark and I have a lot in common.” Harris added that he was inspired to get into politics himself to support a state constitutional amendment banning gay marriage in 2012.

After Robinson finished his speech — which focused on other topics in addition to the pro-conspiracy and anti-LGBTQ themes — Harris asked his congregants to bow their heads in silent reflection on what they had just heard.

“Lt. Gov. Robinson has shared incredible truth here today,” he said.

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