On Tuesday, GOP Lieutenant Governor Mark Robinson won the Republican nomination for Governor of North Carolina in the 2024 election.
But a resurfaced video from four years ago in which he pined for the days before women were allowed to vote has raised eyebrows online.
The video was taken in March 2020 when Robinson was running to be the 35th Lieutenant Governor of the Tar Heel State.
In it, he told gatherers at an event hosted by the Republican Women of Pitt County:
“I absolutely want to go back to the America where women couldn’t vote."
His comment followed his recollection of far-right pundit Candace Owens being asked by an "idiotic guy" to pick one of two scenarios that would make America great again, "the one where women couldn't vote or where Black people were swinging from cheap trees.”
Robinson chose the former scenario, a time when the 19th Amendment didn’t exist.
He added:
"Because in those days we had people who fought for real social change, and they were called Republicans."
Robinson concluded his point by explaining that his party is the reason why women can vote today.
He's right, of course, that it was the Republican Party that led on the abolition of slavery and women's right to vote, but that is a far cry from the Republican Party of today. There was a massive realignment during the Civil Rights Movement that suddenly saw Democrats fighting for civil rights and Republicans appealing to anti-civil rights conservative Southerners who had formerly supported the Democratic Party. Robinson conveniently leaves this out of his speech.
You can his comments here.
Mark Robinson at Republican women Gop Pitt County 3/1/2020youtu.be
Social media users had some thoughts on the direction Robinson wants to take the country in.
While Robinson was clearly making a larger point with his remarks, flawed as it may have been, his comments are in line with other anti-feminist remarks he's made on social media.
In 2016, he claimed on Facebook that "Feminism was planted in the 'Garden,' watered by the devil, and is harvested and sold by his minions."
Mark Keith Robinson/Facebook
He also claimed that any man who called himself a "feminist" was "about as manly as a pair of lace panties."
Mark Keith Robinson/Facebook
He's also repeatedly referred to feminists as "femnazis."
In one post dated April 24, 2017, he went after those who supported equal rights for women and described them as "sexist, hairy armpit having, poo-po hat wearing pinkos" among other choice wording.
Mark Keith Robinson/Facebook
Robinson also has a history of hawking far-right conspiracy theories, including Holocaust denial and making racist and anti-LGBTQ+ statements.
The newly-minted GOP challenger for Governor in the swing state will go head to head with Democratic Attorney General Josh Stein in November.
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