Mark Keith Robinson born August 18, is an American politician who served as the 35th lieutenant governor of North Carolina from to A member of the Republican Party , he was the party's nominee in the North Carolina gubernatorial election. He is North Carolina's first Black lieutenant governor and was the first Black major party nominee for governor. Born in Greensboro, Robinson worked in furniture manufacturing for several years before entering politics.
He came to prominence in when a video of him defending gun rights at a Greensboro City Council meeting in the wake of the Stoneman Douglas High School shooting went viral. Robinson launched his first political campaign in the North Carolina lieutenant gubernatorial election and defeated Democratic state representative Yvonne Lewis Holley.
Near the end of his first term, Robinson won the Republican nomination for governor. He lost to Democratic state attorney general Josh Stein in the general election by Robinson has a history of making incendiary and controversial statements, including about abortion , the LGBTQ community , women's rights , civil rights , and antisemitism. During his gubernatorial campaign, he was linked to extremist comments on an online pornography forum. Robinson denied posting the comments and dismissed calls to drop out of the race.
Robinson was born on August 18, , in Greensboro, North Carolina , as the ninth of ten children. He and his siblings lived in foster care for part of their childhood, before moving back in with their mother, who worked as a custodian. Robinson attributed the beginning of his interest in American conservative politics to his reading of a book by Rush Limbaugh , after which he "found out that I was conservative and always had been".
Robinson spoke in favor of gun rights, and video of his speech went viral after it was shared on Facebook by Mark Walker. In , Robinson entered the Republican primary in the election for lieutenant governor of North Carolina after the finance reporting period ended. Robinson's campaign finance reports contained incomplete information on his campaign contributors. Robinson was sworn in on January 9, As lieutenant governor, Robinson was empowered to preside over sessions of the North Carolina Senate , [ 25 ] but did not do so frequently after his first year in office, instead leaving that duty to the Senate president pro tempore.
