NC's lieutenant governor gains support among some voters after abortion news, WRAL News poll shows

News that North Carolina’s anti-abortion lieutenant governor paid for an abortion in 1989 didn’t change people’s opinion much about the first-term official, based on the results of a WRAL News poll released Monday.

Those who supported Republican Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson largely continued to do so after accounting for the abortion news last month. In some cases, Robinson saw his support increase among people who’d previously said they didn’t have an opinion of him.

“If anything, I think it was kind of a positive,” said Jim Blaine, a Republican consultant in North Carolina who reviewed the poll results. “That was the thing that was interesting to me. If anything, it looked like it helped him with Republicans a surprising amount.”

Michael Bitzer, a political scientist at Catawba College, had much the same take.

“There appears to be no drop among Republican supporters,” he said in an email.

Spokespeople for Robinson didn’t return messages seeking comment on the poll results.

Robinson won the lieutenant governor’s office in 2020, easily besting a crowded GOP primary field despite it being his first run for elected office. He then beat state Rep. Yvonne Holley in the general election. Robinson, a a Christian who starts speeches by thanking Jesus, has repeatedly made homophobic comments and has described abortion as murder.

But in 2012 Facebook comments that went largely unnoticed until last month, Robinson said he paid for an abortion in 1989. He later explained that he and his wife terminated a pregnancy before they were married, saying it was wrong and that it’s one of the reasons he’s now “so adamantly pro-life.”

In an online survey of 2,068 North Carolina registered voters, respondents were asked their opinion of Robinson before they heard about the abortion and after. Of those who supported him before, 84% said they continue to.

He also picked up support from people who’d previously said they weren’t sure what their opinion was on Robinson, adding five percentage points of support across the political spectrum and six points among registered Republicans.

“To some extent that makes me wonder if people aren’t looking for someone who will acknowledge that they have not lived a perfect life,” Blaine said.

Some people who’d been neutral switched to opposed after the news, though. That boosted his opposition by six percentage points in the survey overall, but only by 4 percentage points among Republicans.

Overall, 47% of Republican voters said they strongly approve or somewhat approve of the job Robinson is doing as lieutenant governor. Thirty-four percent said they weren’t sure.

That uncertainty persists among Democrats and unaffiliated voters, too, with 37% of the entire survey population saying they weren’t sure how good a job he’s done.

The survey was performed April 6 through April 10 by SurveyUSA, and the results have a credibility interval of +/- 2.7 percentage points.