Josh Stein, North Carolina’s Democratic attorney general, is projected to become the state’s first Jewish governor after defeating Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson, the Republican candidate who once called himself a “Black NAZI.”
The race was closely watched both because of Robinson’s inflammatory comments denigrating Jews, LGBTQ people and others, and because North Carolina is one of seven swing states that could determine the campaign for president.
Stein, 58, is a centrist Democrat who is the son of a prominent civil rights lawyer. He previously worked as a high school teacher and state senator, as well as in the state Justice Department.
“Tonight the people of North Carolina resoundingly embraced a vision that’s optimistic, forward-looking and welcoming, a vision that’s about creating opportunity for every North Carolinian,” Stein said in his victory speech on Tuesday. “We chose hope over hate, competence over chaos, decency over division.”
The governor-elect is active in Temple Beth Or in Raleigh, a Reform synagogue, and has invoked his Judaism publicly. He once coached a kids’ JCC soccer team.
“Our Jewish faith obliges us to do our part to make the world a better place, better than we found it,” he tweeted to mark Rosh Hashanah in 2022. “This principle guides me as your attorney general.”
Stein’s margin of 54% to 42% over Robinson at 8:30 p.m. Eastern Time was much wider than the presidential vote in this battleground state, where Vice President Kamala Harris was neck and neck with former President Donald Trump. Democrats hoped that Stein’s success would buoy Harris to victory there after Joe Biden lost the state to Trump by a narrow margin in 2020.
Roy Cooper, the state’s term-limited Democratic governor, tapped Stein to succeed him. Robinson was boosted by Trump’s endorsement.
Robinson’s history of offensive posts
For the state’s Jewish Democrats, the joy of seeing Stein win may be overshadowed only by the relief of seeing Robinson lose. A newcomer to politics before he won the lieutenant governor’s race in 2020, Robinson has a history of offensive posts, including on adult websites, that emerged in a litany of revelations over the last year.
In one post, he wrote that “Black Panther,” the blockbuster Marvel movie, was “created by an agnostic Jew and put to film by satanic marxist” and that it was “only created to pull the shekels out of your Schvartze pockets.”
And besides calling himself a “Nazi,” Robinson has written dismissively about Nazis, posting on Facebook in 2017, “I am so sick of seeing and hearing people STILL talk about Nazis and Hitler and how evil and manipulative they were. NEWS FLASH PEOPLE, THE NAZIS (National Socialist) ARE GONE! We did away with them.”
Robinson worked to tone down his image once he entered political office, and says he apologized to local Jewish leaders, though he did not do so publicly. At one point, the Republican Jewish Coalition called his comments “clearly antisemitic.”
Robinson conceded on Tuesday.
“I can tell you this: I’m not going to stop here, folks. We don’t stop here,” he said. “We’ve got a lot of work still to do for the people of North Carolina.”
