Election 2024: Harris makes Mark Robinson the star of her campaign in North Carolina

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — There’s an unlikely star Kamala Harris ‘Drive to win North Carolina: Mark Robinson.

That of the state embattled Republican gubernatorial candidateRobinson will be featured this week in conversations with Harris volunteers and voters on the phone and at their doors. Democrats wave signs at their press conferences warning of Trump-Robinson extremism. There are billboards in key cities warning that Robinson, also the state’s lieutenant governor, is “unhinged.” And Harris is running a new television ad campaign highlighting that Donald Trump’s Story in which Robinson was showered with flowery praise.

No Democrat has led this southern state since the former president Barack Obama in 2008, whose victory is the Democrats’ only presidential-level victory in half a century. But Trump held North Carolina by just 1.3 percentage points four years ago, and in the final weeks before Election Day, North Carolina is once again emerging as one of the most competitive states.

Democrats are betting that the weight of Robinson’s extraordinary baggage can give Harris the edge she needs to make history.

Both sides acknowledge that a Harris victory in North Carolina would dramatically complicate Trump’s path to the presidency. The Republican presidential candidate acknowledged at a campaign stop Wednesday that there is a lot at stake.

“We won North Carolina twice, and we have to win it again,” Trump told a cheering audience at a Charlotte-area manufacturing plant. “We win North Carolina, we go to the end.”

Trump stopped mentioning Robinson

But Trump made no mention of Robinson at the event as he introduced several VIPs, his second statewide snub of his hand-picked gubernatorial candidate in five days.

When asked Thursday whether he would withdraw his support for Robinson, Trump said neither yes nor no.

“I don’t know the situation,” said Trump, who often denies knowledge of acquaintances or familiar topics when they become particularly controversial, such as the authors of the conservative draft “Project 2025.”

Democrats aren’t making it easy for Trump to distance himself from the man he endorsed, gave a speaking slot at the Republican National Convention and called “one of our country’s great leaders” and “better than Martin Luther King.”

Virtually every message Harris’ campaign sent to North Carolina voters this week was about Robinson, who has been abandoned by many Republican officials – and his own staff – in the wake of a CNN report that detailed explicit racist and sexual posts on a pornography website. The Republican Governors Association stopped running ads on his behalf this week, and Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkinwho serves on the RGA’s executive committee, told National Review on Wednesday that he would no longer support Robinson.

However, Trump has so far refused to withdraw his endorsement. This is despite the fact that Robinson, a regular at Trump’s recent appearances in North Carolina, has become the man who must not be named in recent events.

Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Whatley, a North Carolina native, passed over Robinson as he went through a list of the state’s top elected officials during a campaign stop in Charlotte earlier this week.

The insult did not go unnoticed. During Whatley’s remarks, two audience members shouted Robinson’s name. The GOP leader didn’t flinch.

Both Trump and his running mate JD Vance ignored Robinson during their four appearances together in North Carolina since Saturday. Vance was only forced to acknowledge his party’s gubernatorial nominee while answering questions from reporters.

“What he said or didn’t say is ultimately between him and the people of North Carolina,” Vance said of Robinson. “I have seen some of the statements, I have not seen all of them. Some of them are pretty gross to say the least.”

Republicans are worried about the fallout from the scandal

Veteran North Carolina Republican operative Dallas Woodhouse said Robinson’s potential impact on the election was “concerning,” although he predicted it would have a more serious chilling effect on candidates for Congress and the House of Representatives, where Republicans are contesting Obtaining an election requires a supermajority in both chambers.

Meanwhile, some Democrats close to the Harris campaign worry that the Robinson scandal in the governor’s race may not be enough to win North Carolina’s 16 electoral votes for the Democratic candidate. The state has been in the party’s sights since Obama won here in 2008, but even Obama couldn’t repeat his 2012 success.

At least some Harris insiders feel Georgia might be Harris’ better chance down south.

Still, Democrats point to North Carolina’s large suburban population and college graduates – demographics that are turning away from Trump – as well as a growing Hispanic population and a strong base of African Americans that remain core groups in the Democratic coalition.

Harris’ team is confident that the ongoing Robinson fallout and their intense focus on it in the final weeks of the election will give them a slight advantage – if only by convincing some potential Trump voters not to vote at all. They also hope to draw away some of the 250,000 voters who supported Trump’s Republican rival Nikki Haley in the state’s March primary.

“What’s new now is that there’s more attention being paid to Robinson,” said Dan Kanninen, the battleground state director for the Harris campaign. “There’s a greater public recognition that he’s so far outside the mainstream, like Donald Trump, that I think voters now have an opportunity to connect those dots in a way that could get stuck in a time , where voters begin to pay attention and make decisions.”

He called North Carolina “an absolute dead heat.”

Robinson’s problems aren’t dampening the GOP’s enthusiasm for Trump

At one of Vance’s appearances this week, there were signs of concern about Robinson at Charlotte’s Freedom House Church, although no one said the gubernatorial candidate’s problems would stop her from voting for Trump.

“I can’t say I’m confident. It’s close,” Greg Mills, a Republican candidate for school board in Cabarrus County, said of the presidential election.

As a candidate for local office himself, Mills said he was still “inclined to support Robinson” since the gubernatorial candidate has denied the allegations. “If it is true, it is deeply disturbing,” he said.

However, Mills said he had “no reservations” about supporting Trump.

Sitting not far away in the crowded church, Kathy Goodman, 74, of Harrisburg said she wasn’t sure whether she would vote for Robinson this fall. But she insisted Trump was “too good” to be burdened by Robinson.

“He should not be held responsible for the actions of Mark Robinson,” Goodman said. “They are two different individuals.”

Beyond Robinson, Democrats also have a superior ground presence, with 27 campaign offices across the state staffed by more than 250 paid field staff and more than 26,000 volunteers — the vast majority of whom have joined the campaign after Harris voted for President Joe Biden has occurred.

The Trump campaign has allowed outside groups to handle the majority of voter contact on the ground while dedicating much of their resources to monitoring “voter integrity” once the election begins.

At a volunteer center in Raleigh one day earlier this week, Democratic volunteer Nancy Watson, 43, spent her lunch break calling potential Harris supporters. She said she also spends almost every weekend promoting the campaign.

Watson is confident the Robinson scandal will ultimately help Harris, but as she reflected on her recent conversations with voters, she said some people are still not listening closely.

“You never know what motivates potential voters,” she said.

Vernon Daughtry, a 66-year-old volunteer who gave up his career as a teacher and nurse, spoke on the phone nearby.

“I’m glad he’s still on the ticket. I hope he takes down Trump,” Daughtry said of Robinson. “It’s time for North Carolina to elect a Democratic president. It’s doable.”

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Associated Press writer Meg Kinnard in Chapin, South Carolina, contributed to this report.