Under the Dome: Robinson on women’s right to vote, and NC chamber on ‘looming threat’
Greetings and welcome to the Sunday edition of our Under the Dome newsletter. I’m Capitol Bureau Chief Dawn Vaughan, and one of my beats is covering the governor. During election season, that means the governor’s race, too, and if you’re new here, well, buckle up for 2024.
The general election battle for the Executive Mansion will be between Democratic Attorney General Josh Stein and Republican Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson. That alone should make the Council of State meetings for the rest of the year pretty interesting, because they’ll be sitting at a table together. But the actual battleground will be on television, in local and national media, on social media, at rallies and events and eventually, at the kitchen table when people decide who they want to be the next governor.
The governor is essentially the face of the state, and has a major hand in recruiting business. North Carolina is known for its thriving economy as well as its beautiful mountains and coast. And that could have some folks a little worried.
Quoting Robinson
Those of us here in North Carolina are well familiar with Robinson and what he says, from election denial to disparaging remarks about transgender people. He’s made those comments during his time in office, on the campaign trail and on social media. He also blames the news media for bringing attention to it.
National media brought even more attention to what he has said with a Huffington Post story quoting a past Robinson speech in which he said he wanted to “go back to the America where women couldn’t vote.” But there was more to it than that, and as Snopes pointed out, only the partial quote was what went viral on X. The Huffington Post story includes some more of the quote, and Snopes gives the full context, which is that Robinson was saying that the Republican Party of the time fought for change.
Other national attention this past week on North Carolina came from Comedy Central’s The Daily Show, which had a segment that rounded up a lot of what Robinson has said. Josh Shaffer has that story here.
Business climate threat?
The North Carolina Chamber put out a newsletter on Thursday saying that the primary results showed a “looming threat” to the state’s business climate. The chamber lamented the results of two Republican primary elections: incumbent Superintendent of Public Instruction Catherine Truitt being ousted by far-right public school critic Michele Morrow, and Labor Commissioner front-runner Jon Hardister being defeated by MAGA-wing Republican Luke Farley.
NC Chamber Political Director Kirk O’Steen said in the newsletter that “grassroots support of these far-right candidates is powerful enough to get them through primaries, but it remains unclear if they can also win the general election.”
What the Chamber doesn’t mention, however, is that Robinson is from a similar wing of the GOP, and has former President Donald Trump’s endorsement.
“When both parties move to the opposite ends of the political spectrum, it erodes the quiet, bipartisan work necessary to move our state forward,” the Chamber wrote.
How to stay informed
You’ll hear from me more frequently in our Under the Dome newsletters when it comes to news about the governor’s race. And I also host our weekly Under the Dome podcast, which posts every Monday morning.
We put out a bonus podcast this past week with our Charlotte Observer colleagues to talk about primary night surprises in statewide and congressional races, and on Monday’s podcast we break down the results of court, legislative and attorney general races and what that all means for the general election.
Don’t forget to follow our Under the Dome tweets and listen to our Under the Dome podcast to stay up to date.
You can sign up to receive the Under the Dome newsletter at newsobserver.com/newsletters.
This story was originally published March 10, 2024 at 6:00 AM.
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