Embracing bigotry and other news as the election cycle kicks off

Phil Berger shrugs off Mark Robinson homophobia to endorse him

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Yesterday, North Carolina Senate President Pro-tem Phil Berger formally endorsed Lieutenant Governor Mark Robinson for governor in the GOP primary. While I’ve disagreed with him on almost every policy proposal, I’ve respected Berger both for his service and his ability to lead his caucus. On this one, though, I’m having trouble.

The GOP has at least one candidate who has the experience and temperament to serve as governor, and it’s not Mark Robinson. To paraphrase one prominent Republican, Mark Robinson isn’t qualified to manage a Super Dollar store, much less the state of North Carolina. Berger is putting politics ahead of the wellbeing of the state and showing a disrespect for the people he’s supposed to serve. That’s disappointing to say the least.

Berger told the News & Observer that Robinson’s anti-LGBT+ comment won’t hurt him. Robinson has called gay and transgender people “filth” and believes they are going to hell. I suspect in the GOP primary, those comments will actually help Robinson.

However, in the general election, Robinson’s comments could cost him. He’s embraced extremism that goes beyond just the LGBT+ community. He said that he would end abortion with no exceptions. He’s posted blatantly antisemitic comments on social media and puts his religion above the constitution. Mark Robinson is too extreme for North Carolina and I suspect Berger knows it. He also knows that Robinson is the likely GOP nominee.

Among the most disturbing aspects of the modern GOP is watching leaders like Berger shrug off bigotry. At least before 2010 or so, Republican leaders would have denied the racism and homophobia in their ranks, even if it was clearly there. Now, they just say it won’t hurt them politically. That’s a pretty dramatic fall in a short amount of time. It’s also related to the lack of shame in the party. Nothing is too embarrassing in the GOP except maybe George Santos.

In other news, Simon Rosenberg, a Democratic strategist who gained notoriety for correctly predicting that the Red Wave of 2022 was just a mirage, launched a page dedicated to kicking off the campaign in North Carolina. Rosenberg interviewed North Carolina Democratic Party Chair Anderson Clayton earlier this week and says flipping North Carolina should be a top priority for Democrats.

In 2023, Rosenberg made supporting Virginia Democrats his top priority and raised more than $200,000 for legislative candidates. Democrats flipped the Virginia House of Delegates and held onto the state senate, ending Republican Governor Glenn Youngkin’s chance of enacting a conservative legislative agenda. This year, Rosenberg wants to raise $50,000 by March 31 to help the North Carolina Democratic Party organize during the election year. His page is worth following and the interview with Clayton is worth watching.

Rosenberg mentions a poll that was recently released by Meredith University. As I’ve said many times, I don’t believe these polls have much relation to what will happen next November, but this one does show that our state is very evenly divided. Biden leads Trump by one point. While neither man is very popular, Biden’s favorability rating is better than Trump’s.

In primaries, Trump holds a commanding lead among Republicans and so does Mark Robinson. Attorney General Josh Stein leads former Supreme Court Justice Mike Morgan in the Democratic primary by 27, but 44% are undecided. In a head-to-head between Stein and Robinson, Stein leads by two, 38-36.

The main takeaway from the poll is that North Carolina is a toss-up. The election will probably be incredibly close. Democrats need to organize and push out their vote better than they did in 2022. A significantly higher percentage of Republican voters showed up in 2020 and Democrats need to close that gap if they hope to win next year. The poll gives them every reason to believe they can.