Opinion: Mark Robinson’s comeback lacked one big thing—an apology

Mark Robinson, a disgraced Republican candidate for North Carolina governor, teased a comeback with a new “tell-all” interview. But he owes more than that to the millions of North Carolinians he insulted with his hateful campaigning. 

[Editor’s Note: This story makes a reference to an alleged sexual assault.]

In his comeback interview, Mark Robinson said a lot of things, but he left out the most important part: an apology.

Over the course of a 90-minute “tell-all” interview, Robinson cast himself as a victim of his own behavior. He acknowledged he lied about the CNN report that derailed his campaign for governor—the one that unearthed disturbing comments Robinson allegedly made on internet porn message boards under the alter ego “minisoldr.” 

It takes a lot to be the problematic guy on a porn message board, but the stuff Robinson was accused of saying stood out. He reportedly bragged about being a “Black Nazi,” talked about bringing back slavery, and gushed about his love for transgender pornography. The latter is only noteworthy because of Robinson’s repeated attacks on trans people. 

In his new interview, Robinson said some of that was true. And he said he lied to protect Donald Trump’s run for the White House. 

Sure.

In my 20 years covering North Carolina, I have never seen a more hateful candidate than Robinson.

But even if you believe that, what about the millions of North Carolinians Robinson savaged during his political rise and fall? What about all the LGBTQ people, Jewish people, Democratic voters, Muslims, even other Black people—anyone who ran afoul of Robinson’s vindictive gaze? 

For them, Robinson’s return must have felt deeply unsatisfying, an unwelcome reminder of just how cruel and nasty politics can get. 

In my 20 years covering North Carolina, I have never seen a more hateful candidate than Robinson. He was a human Cuisinart. He talked about killing political opponents. He called LGBTQ people “filth.” Women who got abortions needed to keep their skirts down—even if Robinson neglected to mention that he and his wife chose to get an abortion years before he ran for office.

After Mark Robinson, the North Carolina GOP needs a reset

For months, Democrats played back his own words on television, radio, and social media. There seemed to be a never-ending stream of hateful sermon-style rants he filmed at NC churches and political events.

It speaks volumes of the North Carolina Republican Party that they never fully abandoned his run for governor. Sure, their mouthpieces groused behind the scenes about their candidate. I witnessed it. But in front of the camera, they were Robinson supporters until the revolting end.

Republicans need a hard reset. It’s not a conservative ideal to be a hateful pervert, but whether the party admits it or not, for many folks that’s the GOP brand now. And they have no one to blame but themselves. 

Some political party operatives can be gutless. Those folks seemed to be running the NC GOP during Robinson’s ascent.  

Considering Robinson’s public persona—that of a crusading, anti-LGBTQ Christian—the stories about Robinson’s pornography habit transformed how many people saw him, this man who President Trump once blasphemously declared to be “Martin Luther King on steroids.”

I don’t know what Robinson is planning next. Maybe he wants his own podcast or a “shock jock” radio show. What about a ghost-written book? Maybe he’s even thinking about running for office again. 

Whatever it is, it’s a mistake. And the fact that he thinks it’s possible says as much about what’s become of the modern Republican Party as it does Robinson. Even now, there are some among the GOP base who’d love a comeback. Despite everything we knew about Robinson in November 2024, it’s worth mentioning that 2.2 million North Carolinians voted for him anyway. 

Republicans need a hard reset. It’s not a conservative ideal to be a hateful pervert, but whether the party admits it or not, for many folks that’s the GOP brand now. And they have no one to blame but themselves. 

We’re not talking about regressive or progressive tax policy right now or the merits of “trickle-down” economics. We’re talking about basic, human decency. 

There’s no reason to think this is a better Republican Party today. Even now, one of Robinson’s biggest supporters, former NC GOP Chair Michael Whatley, is running to represent North Carolina in the US Senate. 

North Carolina voters responded to Robinson’s hypocrisy and hatred by giving Democrat Josh Stein a 14-point win—what amounts to a landslide in a governor’s race here. 

But what does it say about the modern MAGA movement that many of the same people who turned down a vote for Robinson in 2024 went into the booth and voted for Donald Trump, even though Trump has been credibly accused of far worse things than Robinson?

Trump is a convicted felon, a man accused numerous times of sexual assault or worse, a guy who palled around with Jeffrey Epstein, the world’s most notorious pedophile and sex trafficker. Even now, Trump’s administration seems to be working to prevent a full accounting for Epstein’s crimes. 

It’s not as if Republicans are the only ones with troublesome candidates. History is filled with politicians on the left and the right who thought they could get away with something. But right now, it is the Republican Party that is elevating those folks like they did with Robinson. 

In Robinson, the NC GOP fell in line behind a man with no apparent qualifications for leadership other than a viral rant on guns during a local city council meeting, and they set him up to lead the entire state. 

They were so enamored with the thought of a Black man espousing derivative, white supremacist dogma that they didn’t bother to find out who he actually was.  

Robinson’s rise and fall perfectly encapsulates the difference between the modern liberal and the modern conservative. Both ideologies have their quirks, their strong points and weak points. But for many Republican voters, the problem with Robinson seemed to be the allegations of embarrassing sexual posts. Democrats’ problem was just about everything else he said. 

When he announced his retirement in June 2025, US Sen. Thom Tillis (R-North Carolina) had a parting bit of advice for the Republican Party and President Donald Trump.

“Word to the wise, let’s avoid minisoldr,” Tillis wrote on X. 

The Republican Party didn’t listen to the multitude of warnings about Robinson before. They would be wise to listen now.