Mark Robinson’s Campaign Is Imploding

Photo: Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images

Despite setting a new standard for weird GOP extremism and pro-Nazi porn-site commentary, Mark Robinson has repeatedly vowed to carry on with his scandal-plagued gubernatorial campaign in North Carolina. On Sunday, he again insisted he wouldn’t drop out — in a statement announcing that several senior members of his campaign staff had. Robinson’s campaign manager, deputy campaign manager, finance director, and general consultant/senior adviser have all quit. His director of operations and two political directors have also resigned, according to WUNC, which reports that only three staffers now remain:

A campaign news release said that four top staffers have left the campaign: Conrad Pogorzelski, general consultant and senior adviser who’s worked for Robinson since his initial 2020 lieutenant governor campaign; Chris Rodriguez, campaign manager; Heather Whillier, finance director; and Jason Rizk, deputy campaign manager. But WUNC has confirmed that other staffers have quit as well, leaving Robinson with just three people working on his campaign — two campaign spokesmen and a bodyguard. The list of departures also includes longtime director of operations Patrick Riley and political directors John Kontoulas and Jackson Lohrer.

The mass exodus comes just three days after a CNN report revealed that Robinson had once referred to himself as a “Black Nazi” on a porn-site message board. (He also expressed an affinity for Hitler, called Mein Kampf a “good read,” said slavery should be reinstated, disparaged Martin Luther King Jr., used antisemitic slurs, and said a whole lot of other things.)

The North Carolina Republican Party has so far stood by its nominee, and over the weekend, GOP vice-presidential candidate J.D. Vance kind of almost did too. When asked if he believed Robinson’s claims that he didn’t write the porn-site posts, Vance responded, “I don’t not believe him, I don’t believe him — I just think that you have to let these things sometimes play out in the court of public opinion.”

Robinson did not appear at Donald Trump’s campaign rally in Wilmington, North Carolina, on Saturday, and Trump, who once said Robinson was “better than Martin Luther King,” didn’t mention him at all. Polls have shown Democrat Josh Stein leading Robinson by double digits in the gubernatorial race.

“I appreciate the efforts of these team members who have made the difficult choice to step away from the campaign,” Robinson said on Sunday, “and I wish them well in their future endeavors. I look forward to announcing new staff roles in the coming days.”

In the meantime, notorious pro-Trump operative and convicted felon Jack Burkman announced on Sunday night that he would be Robinson’s new campaign manager — but that appears to have been yet another hoax.

There may not be much left to do anyway. A GOP strategist from North Carolina, Doug Heye, tells Axios that Robinson’s personnel upheaval “doesn’t matter because the campaign was already over.”

This post has been updated.