A North Shore Republican fundraiser scheduled for later this month featuring embattled North Carolina Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson has raised internal concerns that the optics of the event could hurt the state GOP’s larger efforts to try to rebuild itself as a credible alternative in a blue state.
Robinson, the controversial conservative GOP nominee for governor in North Carolina, posted comments more than a decade ago on a pornography website that referred to himself as a “black NAZI!,” supported the reinstatement of slavery and said Adolf Hitler was a better leader than Barack Obama, CNN reported Thursday.
The CNN report also said Robinson posted to a website in graphic detail his sexual arousal as an adult from memories of secretly “peeping” on women in public gym showers as a 14-year-old. And despite his publicly stated anti-transgender stance, he posted about his enjoyment of watching transgender pornography and at one point also referred to himself as a “perv,” the report said.
Robinson has denied making the comments.
Additionally, Politico reported that an email address belonging to Robinson was registered on Ashley Madison, a website geared to married people seeking affairs. A Robinson adviser confirmed the address, but a spokesperson said Robinson did not have an account on the website.
Combined, the revelations added to existing concerns from national Republicans about Robinson’s viability against Democrat rival Josh Stein, the state’s attorney general. Previous polling in the race had shown Robinson, who was endorsed by former President Donald Trump, to be regularly running behind Stein, and the state’s Democrats are hoping the latest reports on Robinson will damage Trump’s bid to return to the White House.
Robinson in the past used social media to say the Holocaust was “hogwash” and in a video posting from 2020 said he would “absolutely want to go back to the America where women couldn’t vote.”
The North Shore GOP fundraiser was scheduled before the latest revelations from CNN and Politico. But Robinson’s previous history didn’t stop Mark Shaw, the former Lake County GOP chair and member of the Illinois Republican State Central Committee from working with 10th Congressional District Republicans to host Robinson for a fundraiser on Sept. 29 in Kenilworth.
Tickets for the event range from $50 to $100 per person and sponsorships were available from $1,000 to more than $5,000. Portions of the proceeds were being dedicated to help Trump in the nearby battleground state of Wisconsin.
Recent campaign finance reports showed Shaw, former state GOP Chair Don Tracy and two other event hosts pouring a combined $50,600 into the 10th Congressional District GOP organization’s political fund — apparently as payment to Robinson’s campaign. Julie Cho, who heads the New Trier Township GOP organization, also is listed as a host.
Shaw was ousted from his role as state GOP vice chair in June over his activities in trying to leverage Trump delegate slots at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee in exchange for votes for him to become the state’s Republican national committeeman. The effort failed.
Tracy, a Shaw ally, exited the state’s GOP chairman role days after Shaw’s vice chairmanship was revoked but he remains a member of the state party’s governing board.
Shaw did not respond to a request for comment on the fundraiser. Kathy Salvi, elected to replace Tracy as state GOP chair, also had no comment on the fundraising event as did other Republican officials who were contacted.
But privately, party insiders said the event cuts the legs from under the state GOP as it tries to motivate voters closer to the election and predicted it would be canceled as fundraising for Robinson dries up.
Pat Brady, a former state Republican chairman and a leading critic of Trump in Illinois, said the event is “absolutely so counterproductive to what the party is trying to accomplish in appealing to a broad range of voters.”
Brady questioned Robinson’s political drawing power, given his history of controversial remarks.
“He’s no draw, except for a very limited group of people, and he repulses the people that we so desperately need to get to win. It makes absolutely no sense, not just in Illinois but any state,” Brady said.
