Josh Stein helps Mark Robinson get his message out

Stein's new ad is just Mark Robinson talking.

In the North Carolina governor’s race, Josh Stein is helping Mark Robinson get his message out. Robinson has been telling us who he is for a decade now. Through social media posts, guest sermons, and political rallies, he’s let us know that he proudly opposes abortion with no exceptions. Now, Stein is amplifying that message and letting Robinson tell it in his own words.

Stein released his first ad of the cycle and it’s all Robinson. It’s one clip after another of Robinson telling us what he believes about women and abortion. He says “For me, there is no compromise on abortion. It makes no difference to me why or how that child ended up in that womb.” He also puts the blame for unplanned or difficult pregnancies squarely on women, saying, “[Abortion] is about killing that child because you weren’t responsible enough to keep your skirt down.”

The ad is effective for a number reasons. Most importantly, it uses Robinson’s own words to clearly define his position on abortion, over and over. He will have a difficult time putting distance between himself and his extreme position on the matter.

But the ad also shows his demeanor. He has no room for empathy for those who might need abortions for medical reasons or in the cases of rape or incest. He ridicules women, putting a complex and difficult subject into very black and white terms. I think most people see abortion as a personal problem that’s often tragic, not a reason to be humiliated. Robinson comes across as an unsympathetic bully who’s pounding his chest and looking for cheers from his radical anti-abortion base.

Robinson’s campaign has tried to downplay his scornful rhetoric, but that’s not going to work. If he tries to back down now, he looks like a hypocrite or a liar. He’s on the record and he will have to own it. It’s not one or two clips taken out of context. Robinson leaves little doubt about his position on multiple platforms and venues.

The Stein campaign is also showing off their financial advantage. They are defining Robinson early. They will try to drive his negative ratings up, possibly forcing Robinson to spend money earlier than he would like to prevent his unfavorable ratings from getting too high to recover. Without an effective response to the ad, the Robinson campaign will almost certainly try to drive Stein’s negatives up, too, giving voters a choice of the lesser of two evils. However, Robinson’s uncompromising fire-and-brimstone condemnations of people in trouble makes him an easier villain to fear.

If they’ve released this ad in June, the Stein campaign has plenty more to unload going forward. Robinson spent years defining himself publicly in terms that offend many North Carolinians. In this segmented world, he was playing mainly to audiences who would applaud his hateful rhetoric. In a campaign, those same performances will be playing to a much broader audience. He can’t put his words back in the box. I just hope the Stein campaign can get them in enough formats and on enough platforms that everybody hears them.