Democrats hold three governorships up for election in 2024—North Carolina, Delaware, and Washington—and no incumbent is running again.
Republicans are understandably salivating at the prospect of contesting the North Carolina race in a presidential year without the term-limited Roy Cooper.
On Super Tuesday, Lieutenant Governor Mark Robinson won 66 percent of the GOP-primary vote. Robinson is a socially conservative Trump loyalist who rose to prominence as a defender of gun rights. He also has a checkered financial record and a long rap sheet of garishly controversial statements.
Some of these are merely impolitic, but impolitic is not the best thing for a politician. Some have been misquoted by his enemies.
But others raise much more serious questions about his beliefs and temperament, especially on topics such as the Holocaust and Jewish influence in Hollywood.
His Democratic opponent, state attorney general Josh Stein, will press Robinson on these issues. Republican primary voters could have made Stein’s job harder.