‘Black Nazi’ Mark Robinson Goes Down in NC Gov. Race

Mark Robinson, the North Carolina Republican whose extensive history of bigotry was shocking even for a Donald Trump-endorsed politician, lost his gubernatorial race to Democratic Attorney General Josh Stein on Tuesday.

Stein led Robinson by nearly 30 points as early results came in on Tuesday, enough for Fox News, NBC News, and others to call the race for the Democrat.

Robinson's track record of offensive, racist remarks defined his campaign. He's attacked Jews, Muslims, the LGBTQ community, called abortion "genocide" and survivors of the Parkland school shooting "spoiled." He also made a series of wild, lewd posts on the message board of a pornography website called Nude Africa, as CNN reported in September, writing that Martin Luther King Jr. was "worse than a maggot" and describing himself in one post as a "black NAZI!"

Donald Trump was a vocal supporter of Robinson, officially endorsing him at a rally in March. The former president dubbed Robinson "Martin Luther King on steroids," as well as calling him "better than Martin Luther King" and "Martin Luther King times two."

Trump first said he'd endorse Robinson at last year's North Carolina Republican Party's annual convention, calling for donors to "quadruple" their campaign contributions, saying they should "cherish" Robinson, while praising his "incredible, booming voice" and "beautiful rhetorical statements."

Robinson joined Trump at a rally in Asheboro, North Carolina, this August, but by September, after CNN reported on his porn forum comments, Trump backed away from the controversial candidate. Rolling Stone reported in September that Trump wanted to know if Robinson was mentally ill, and the two haven't appeared together since, with Trump claiming in October that he's "not familiar with the state of the race right now."

Trump feigning ignorance isn't surprising considering the nature of Robinson's comments on the porn forum. Robinson called himself a "perv" and detailed how he secretly watched women in a gym locker room as a teenager. "Ahhhhh memories!!!!" he wrote in one of several jaw-dropping posts. "Slavery is not bad," he wrote in another. "Some people need to be slaves. I wish they would bring it back. I would certainly buy a few." In 2012, during Barack Obama's presidency, Robinson wrote: "I'd take Hitler over any of the sh*t that's in Washington right now!"

In addition to writing that Martin Luther King was "worse than maggots," Robinson called the civil rights leader a "commie bastard," and in one post wrote, "I'm not in the KKK. They don't let blacks join. If I was in the KKK I would have called him Martin Lucifer Koon!"

King's son, Martin Luther King III, said that Robinson's "praise for slavery, disparaging rhetoric, and grotesque characterization of my dad and his legacy are deeply worrisome for North Carolinians and all Americans who oppose racism and bigotry."

Robinson has denied making these comments. "This is not us. These are not our words. And this is not anything that is characteristic of me," he said. Robinson sued CNN over its report.

Robinson first came into the public eye in 2018 when he made comments about his support of gun rights at a Greensboro City Council meeting. The comments were made in the wake of the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, where 17 people were killed. "The criminals are going to hold on to their guns," Robinson said. "They're still going to have them. They're still going to break in my house. They're still going to shoot me with them. Guess who is going to be the one that suffers? It's going to be me."

In a Facebook post around the same time, Robinson called Parkland survivors advocating for gun control "spoiled, angry, know it all CHILDREN." He also called them "bastards" and "silly little immature 'media prosti-tots.'"

Robinson has also made inflammatory remarks about abortion, calling it " genocide " and suggesting that the founders of Planned Parenthood were "satanists involved in witchcraft," referring to abortion as "an idea straight from the devil." He hasn't been so outspoken on the campaign trail, however. In July, Rolling Stone reported that Robinson said, days after the state's abortion ban went into effect, that he did not want to say the "A-word," for fear that the issue would hurt him politically.

It turned out to be the least of his problems.

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