What to Know About Mark Robinson, North Carolina’s Hitler-Quoting Gubernatorial Candidate

Robinson, who won North Carolina's Republican gubernatorial primary, has repeatedly made alarming and hateful comments toward women, the LGBTQ community, school shooting survivors and Jewish people

North Carolina gubernatorial candidate Mark Robinson — a Republican who currently serves as the state's lieutenant governor — has made a slew of headlines in recent months, most of them concerning problematic comments he's made about women, the LGBTQ community, school shooting survivors and Jewish people.

Here's what to know about Robinson, 55, ahead of the November election — where he will face off with the state's Democratic Attorney General Josh Stein — including some of the politician's most alarming remarks.

He is North Carolina's lieutenant governor

Robinson has served as the lieutenant governor of North Carolina under Democrat Roy Cooper since 2021, in what is largely a ceremonial role. Unlike in states where governors select their own running mates, North Carolina elects its governor and lieutenant governor separately.

He announced his candidacy for governor last April and, in March 2024, officially became the Republican gubernatorial nominee after defeating attorney Bill Graham and state Treasurer Dale Folwell in the primary.

Related: Donald Trump Says Immigrants Are 'Poisoning the Blood of Our Nation,' Echoing Line from Hitler's Manifesto

Rush Limbaugh inspired him to get into conservative politics

Robinson has attributed his foray into politics to late conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh, whom he once told WRAL News helped him realize “that I was conservative and always had been.”

He rose to political prominence in 2018, when he gave a strongly worded speech on gun rights before the Greensboro City Council that ultimately went viral, cementing his support among conservatives.

He would go on to be a frequent speaker at pro-gun rights events, and became an ally of former President Donald Trump, with whom he has appeared at rallies and received an endorsement from.

He said he would go back to a time when women couldn’t vote

Robinson has drawn ire for a number of comments he's made in the past, including remarks made at a 2020 event that recently resurfaced on YouTube.

Speaking at a Republican Women event in North Carolina, Robinson said he would "absolutely want to go back to the America where women couldn't vote," in response to a question asking: "Which America would you want to go back to? One where women couldn't vote or one where Black people were swinging from trees?"

Answering the question, Robinson said, "Because in those days we had people who fought for real social change, and they were called Republicans, and they are the reason why women can vote today."

Related: North Carolina Lt. Gov. Mocked School Shooting Survivors in Unearthed Facebook Rants

He once derided school shooting survivors as "spoiled little b-----ds"

Robinson has also courted controversy for remarks he made following the 2018 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, when a gunman killed 17 people, including students and teachers. On Facebook, Robinson lambasted the teenaged survivors who were advocating for stricter gun control policies, calling them "spoiled, angry, know it all CHILDREN,” “spoiled little b-----ds,” and “media prosti-tots," CNN’s KFile reported.

In another post published just six days after the shooting, Robinson shared a photo of a group of the survivors along with the caption: “The look you get when you let the devil give you a ride on a river of blood to ’15 minutes of Fameville.’"

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CNN also reported on a 2018 podcast in which Robinson spoke about gun violence protestors, drawing a comparison to the 1970 shooting of unarmed students at Kent State during a Vietnam War protest.

"We need some politicians in office in some of these cities that’s gonna let people know from the get-go, you go in the street and block traffic, if you block buildings, if you destroy property, you are going to be dealt with swiftly and harshly," Robinson said in the podcast. "We are not going to tolerate it."

He has denied the Holocaust and once quoted Hitler in a Facebook post

In a 2014 Facebook post that's surfaced in recent months, Robinson challenged his followers to guess "who said it," before quoting Adolf Hitler.

He later defended that post, saying in a 2023 speech at an event held by the far-right group Moms of Liberty, “Because you quoted Hitler, you support Hitler. I guess every history book in America supports Hitler now. They all quote him.”

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Robinson has denied the Holocaust in multiple other Facebook posts, once implying that 6 million Jewish people were not murdered, and separately writing, “this foolishness about Hitler disarming MILLIONS of Jews and then marching them off to concentration camps is a bunch of hogwash.”

As for other anti-semitic remarks, the News & Observer reports that he once claimed the film Black Panther was “created by an agnostic Jew and put to film by [a] satanic Marxist,” and “was only created to pull the shekels out of your Schvartze pockets."

He later walked that statement back in his 2022 memoir, writing, “It did come out wrong. I knew the truth of what I was trying to say, but I should have chosen different words.”

Robinson's gubernatorial opponent, Democrat Josh Stein, is Jewish, with his campaign stating that given his history of offensive remarks, "This is as close as he should ever get to being governor."

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He delivered sermons littered with anti-LGBTQ rhetoric, including calling transgender and gay people "filth"

Remarks Robinson has made to church congregations about the LGBTQ community have also resurfaced amid his gubernatorial run.

Speaking at Asbury Baptist Church in June 2021, Robinson said, “There’s no reason anybody anywhere in America should be telling any child about transgenderism, homosexuality, any of that filth. And yes, I called it filth."

In a 2023 sermon, Robinson spoke similarly, saying, "Makes me sick every time I see it, when I pass a church that flies that rainbow flag, which is a direct spit in the face to God Almighty."

In previous Facebook posts, his rants about the LGBTQ community were similarly hateful, in one calling homosexuality a "filthy abomination" and "degenerate, un-natural lust," and in another suggesting that gay rights will bring about the end of civilization.

Following widespread condemnation for his remarks, Robinson doubled down on his word choices, further accusing schools of teaching "perverted agendas" when he was challenged.

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