'Opposition researcher’s dream': GOP insiders fear this far-right candidate will doom Trump

27 May 2024

Organizers for President Joe Biden's reelection campaign have argued that if there is any state Biden has a realistic chance of flipping in 2024, it's North Carolina — which Biden lost to former President Donald Trump by roughly 1 percent in 2020.

Most polls released in May have showed Trump with single-digit leads over Biden in North Carolina, including 2 percent in a High Point University poll. But Cook Political Report and Bloomberg News/Morning Consult have found Trump ahead of Biden by 7 percent there.

In a report published on May 27, the Daily Beast's Jake Lahut examines the possibility that North Carolina's far-right gubernatorial nominee, Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson, will harm Trump's campaign in that state and improve Biden's chances of a North Carolina victory.

Robinson has taken a variety of extreme positions, from Holocaust denial to saying, during a March 2020 event, "I absolutely want to go back to the America where women couldn't vote."

Democratic strategist Morgan Jackson told the Beast, "He's an opposition researcher's dream…. Mark Robinson is the most extreme candidate for public office, period, in North Carolina — much less the race for governor."

Jackson added, "If you're a CEO and you're thinking of moving your business to North Carolina, and Mark Robinson is the governor, I think your employees are going to tell you they want to go somewhere else."

A Trump ally told the Beast that the former president "likes" Robinson "a lot," but North Carolina-based GOP strategist Paul Shumaker fears that Robinson's campaign could have a "reverse coattails" effect — meaning that North Carolina residents who vote against Robinson will decide to vote against Trump as well rather than splitting their tickets.

Shumaker told the Beast, "The Biden campaign will attempt to tie the two together. Democrats have a major turnout problem, and Trump will distance himself and withdraw his endorsement if Robinson becomes too much of a liability. (I) can't underscore Ds' turnout problems enough."

Read the Daily Beast's full report at this link (subscription required).

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