The governor of North Carolina, Democrat Roy Cooper, is term-limited, so the governorship is open this election cycle. The Democrat running to replace him is Josh Stein, while the Republican lieutenant governor, Mark Robinson, is running to move up.
Cooper was mentioned as a possible VP candidate for Kamala Harris, but took himself out of the running early on, saying that with Robinson as lieutenant governor, he (Cooper) couldn’t afford to be out of the state campaigning. (!)
Robinson is a full-bore MAGA Trump acolyte, who has been praised by Trump in the past. Still, the race started out tight, since NC is a swing state and since the Republicans have super majorities in both chambers of the legislature.
Lately, though, Robinson’s incendiary comments have become more and more extreme, such as suggesting a few weeks ago that “Some people just need killing!” when talking about people opposing his brand of Christianity.
Now, things have come to a head, as more and more stories about Robinson’s past have come out, and as many Republicans are calling for him to drop out of the race. (And today is the last day that the NC GOP can replace him if he drops out; after today, he’s on the ballot regardless.)
Why do we in Kentucky care about drama in North Carolina? For two reasons:
- NC is a swing state, and a bad GOP candidate for governor could pull down the overall GOP vote enough that Harris wins the state and its 16 electoral votes.
- There are a number of close House races across the state. Flipping some of them from red to blue could mean retaking the House.
So, without further ado, here are some tweets I captured today:
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