Conspiracy Theorist Mark Robinson Wins North Carolina’s GOP Primary For Governor

The Donald Trump acolyte is now likely to try to distance himself from his long history of sexist, antisemitic and otherwise offensive remarks.

Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson was projected to win North Carolina’s GOP gubernatorial primary as of Tuesday night, meaning Republican voters here have chosen a self-described conspiracy theorist known for his incendiary rhetoric as their best bet for winning a general election in November.

NBC and CBS projected Robinson the winner just before 8 p.m. local time.

Robinson will now face Democratic Attorney General Josh Stein. Both are hoping to succeed Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper, who is term-limited out after two consecutive terms.

It’s no surprise that Robinson won. He’d been leading in the polls for months against his GOP challengers, state treasurer Dale Folwell and multimillionaire Bill Graham. Robinson had a pretty simple campaign strategy: Align with Donald Trump, say whatever wild and offensive things you want, and look to Trump’s base of supporters to show up for you at the polls.

This may have worked in the primary, but winning the general election in a presidential election year is an entirely different game. Robinson will almost certainly spend the coming months trying to seem like a more mainstream politician — in contrast to his years of spewing sexist, transphobic, Islamophobic and antisemitic rhetoric, along with a range of dangerous conspiracy theories.