NC GOP governor nominee Mark Robinson under fire over 2020 remarks about wanting ‘America where women couldn’t vote’
The newly-minted Republican nominee for governor of North Carolina came under fire on Tuesday for resurfaced remarks that he would “absolutely” like to go back to days when women couldn’t vote.
Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson was attempting to make an obscure point about the Republican party fighting for “social change” during a March 2020 event when he appeared to reminisce about the days of women’s suffrage and Jim Crow.
“I absolutely want to go back to the America where women couldn’t vote. Do you wanna know why?” Robinson asked an assembly of Republican women.
“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.”
Robinson also spoke about the days of the Jim Crow South and stressed that Republicans, at the time, were “fighting to bring that to an end.”
“That’s the America we want to bring back,” he said. “We want to bring back the America where Republicans and principles and true ideas of freedom rule.”
Robinson — who worked in a furniture factory before becoming lieutenant governor — secured the GOP nomination for governor on Super Tuesday.
The candidate has gained attention in the past for his controversial comments: including disparaging the LGBT community, labeling Michelle Obama a man, spreading wild conspiracy theories about COVID, and spewing antisemitic tropes.
In 2014 he quoted Hitler on Facebook and later defended the move.
“Because you quoted Hitler, you support Hitler,” he said during a speech in July. “I guess every history book in America supports Hitler now. They all quote him.”
The GOP candidate has strong backing from former President Donald Trump, who has called the candidate “Martin Luther King on steroids.”
