I’m tired of Republicans running Black men who make fools of themselves. Right now, we’re seeing that happen with Mark Robinson. Before we found out he was a “Black Nazi,” we knew something was off with him. He became a darling of the MAGA right when he showed up to a town hall meeting back in 2018 and gave a speech opposing gun safety laws. The whole thing was nonsensical.
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He called out the “loonies from the left.” He called out the “Crips and the Bloods on the other side” of Greensboro, NC. And he claimed to represent “the majority” of gun owners – responsible gun owners who want to carry their weapons without restriction. The only problem is that a majority of gun owners actually do support common sense gun safety laws. One thing’s for sure: Robinson does not represent the majority of Black men who want better for their communities. So why are the Republicans running a candidate like him?
As we all know, the Republican party wasn’t always the party it is today. While Black elected officials are rare in today’s Republican party, during Reconstruction, the Black men who were elected to public office were almost universally Republicans. The parties switched into their current ideological alignments when Democratic president Lyndon Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act, and Black men have voted solidly for Democrats ever since.
Republicans today know they have a race problem, and with whites expected to no longer be the majority race in a few decades, the GOP recognizes they will be uncompetitive without greater support from minorities. Black women are too loyal to the Democratic party – and are honestly too savvy to fall for the GOP’s tricks – but Republicans sense they might have a shot with Black men.
Enter Robinson. With the wildly unsupported claims he made in his viral speech, it’s not immediately clear why Republicans thought they had found their guy. My guess is they saw him as a Black man who checked all the right stereotypical boxes for them – conservative, angry, and grew up in a broken home – and assumed he could become their emissary to Black men.
But for as much as white Republicans may have hoped Robinson could help them appeal to Black voters, I think they knew he could help them energize white MAGA voters even more. How? By publicly saying the racist things about Black people they couldn’t. He has compared the Obamas to “the stench of human waste,” alleged that Michelle Obama was a transgender woman who spoke “ghetto,” and called Black Democrats “slaves,” Beyonce a “skank,” and George Floyd a “scumbag.” Judging by some of the comments on his anti-Black social media posts, Republicans in North Carolina knew exactly what they were doing when they gave him the platform they did.
Don’t get it twisted – I’m not trying to suggest that Robinson is getting used by the Republican party. I’m sure he views it as a win-win situation. What I’m saying is that the rest of us have a right to feel insulted that Republicans continue seeking out Black men like Herschel Walker and Mark Robinson to do their bidding. White Republicans should feel insulted too. They should demand more of the leaders their party elevates. Even though I have some other gripes with him, I’d take a decent man like Tim Scott over Mark Robinson any day.
At the moment, I’m not too concerned because the GOP’s pact with Robinson massively backfired. Even before last week’s bombshell, polling showed him with only 2 percent support from Black men. Overall, Democratic nominee Josh Stein’s lead is growing. While it looks like Republicans might learn their lesson in the short-term, Democrats have a lesson to learn in the long-term. Robinson won the lieutenant governor’s race in 2020 as a political newcomer, even as the seasoned Republican nominee for governor lost his election.
Not to mention, Robinson could still technically win in November. Whatever happens, Democrats must wake up to down ballot races by investing the time and resources needed to win them. And they must wake up to the disillusionment felt by certain subsets of our coalition, like Black and rural voters. If they do, we might all have Mark Robinson to thank for sounding the alarm.
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Gevin Reynolds is a communications strategist and former speechwriter to Vice President Kamala Harris.
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