Weekly Recap: Early voting begins, Robinson pushes back on Holocaust denialism allegations and Biden comes to Raleigh
President Joe Biden visited Raleigh to tout high-speed Internet funds. Meanwhile, Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson's campaign is clapping back on a new attack ad.
Before we begin, I ask that you please rise, kick a football wide to the right and observe a moment of silence for the death of my Buffalo Bills. What a predictable disappointment my Sunday night was.
But you’re not here for the depressing sports commentary of a man with such poor taste in beleaguered teams like the Oakland A’s and San Jose Sharks. You’re here for politics.
So let’s take a look back at the week that was in North Carolina…
A presidential visit
President Joe Biden came to Raleigh on Thursday. But rather than highlight his Cook Out order (as many news folks seemed caught up in), I wanted to highlight two moments from his speech at Abbotts Creek Community Center that actually matter.
Moment #1: Biden joined Gov. Roy Cooper in announcing an $82 million federal spend to get 16,000 new households and businesses in North Carolina connected to high-speed Internet. Biden added that all North Carolinians can expect to see universal high-speed Internet by the end of the decade.
“By the end of the decade, we’re going to finish the job, reaching all the remaining homes, schools, libraries, small businesses, healthcare facilities in North Carolina that don’t have access to high-speed Internet today,” Biden said. “Let me say that again: universal high-speed Internet in all of North Carolina by the end of this decade.”
The funds come from the American Rescue Plan, a COVID stimulus bill that passed in 2021 almost entirely along party lines.
Put simply: This spending a big deal, particularly as the Democratic Party in North Carolina works to appeal to rural communities who have often felt ignored. The announcement also comes as Biden works to tout his administration’s economic policies in a state that is one of a handful that will decide whether he’s reelected.
Republicans, however, say Biden’s policies have proven harmful.
Senate leader Phil Berger’s office on Thursday noted that the costs of goods and services have risen since Biden’s been in office. When Biden visited the Thomasville-based fast food chain during the 2020 election, a regular Cook Out tray cost $5.99. Little more than three years later, the tray now costs $7.69 — a 28% increase.
Moment #2: It wasn’t just Biden’s economic policies that made news. During his speech, Biden gave a shout-out to U.S. Rep. Deborah Ross, adding that the two had just taken a picture together before Biden took the stage.
“I also want to mention your Congresswoman Deborah Ross,” Biden told attendees. “Where’s Deborah? Did she— I just had my picture taken with her. That’s probably why she left.”
The issue: Ross wasn’t at the event. Instead, she was in Washington, D.C. Biden quickly realized the mistake he had made. “Oh, she couldn’t be here, actually. That’s not true. I got it mixed up. And she has — you know, she fights very hard for the people of this district, and she is up in Washington right now.”
Biden has long been known for making gaffes, while former President Donald Trump, the GOP frontrunner, has increasingly made slip-ups on the campaign trail.
Unforced errors could stand to hurt both candidates’ political chances, particularly among swing voters concerned about the ages of the two leading contenders. In focus groups with Axios last year, several North Carolina voters who backed Trump in 2016 and Biden in 2020 said they found it concerning or exhausting when they saw Biden slip up over his words.
‘Robinson has never questioned the Holocaust’
As early voting kicked off on Friday, the GOP frontrunner in North Carolina’s gubernatorial primary, Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson, sought to refute assertions that he’s anti-Semitic and denies the Holocaust.
Republican trial lawyer Bill Graham put Robinson on the defensive this month after releasing an ad highlighting some of Robinson’s past social media posts, including one from 2018 that Democrats and Republicans alike have latched onto as evidence of Holocaust denialism.
“This foolishness about Hitler disarming MILLIONS of Jews and then marching them off to concentration camps is a bunch of hogwash,” Robinson wrote.
In a five-page memo sent to donors on Friday, Robinson’s communications director, Mike Lonergan, says the “hogwash” comment wasn’t about the existence of the Holocaust, but about a view that Nazis used gun control to carry out the Holocaust.
“Robinson has never questioned the Holocaust,” the memo reads.
While Cooper was abroad in October, Robinson issued a proclamation as acting governor to declare a week of solidarity with Israel in response to the Hamas-led attack on the country.
Robinson’s news conference had the feel of a campaign reset aimed at giving the lieutenant governor an opportunity to use the megaphone of his briefly-held Governor’s Office to show support for the Jewish community. Democrats and Republicans, however, have sought to remind voters of Robinson’s past social media comments.
Sadie Wiener, a spokesperson for Cooper, said of Robinson’s proclamation at the time, “It’s tragically ironic that someone with a long history of hate speech against Jewish people would take advantage of death and destruction in Israel for his own political purposes.”
Republican State Treasurer and gubernatorial opponent Dale Folwell said in a statement directed at Robinson: “As a person who has shamefully denied the Holocaust and whose history is checkered with hateful anti-Semitic comments, you have no right to be commenting on this topic.”
Democratic gubernatorial frontrunner and Attorney General Josh Stein, who is Jewish, has used Robinson’s social media posts as a call for people to donate to his campaign.
Robinson has made a litany of divisive comments on social media over the years. In a memoir, Robinson discussed his approach on Facebook as deliberately provocative.
“I didn’t hold back,” Robinson wrote in his memoir. “I wanted to be as demonstrative as possible because I wanted people to, as the guy said, ‘Come at me, bro.’ I wanted people to come at me. I wanted to be as in their faces as possible. I wanted people to read my page and go ‘What did he say? Did he really say that?’ And that’s what happened. People would come to my page and challenge me over one thing or another. But I made nothing up. Every post was rooted in truth.”
In his book, Robinson expressed regret over one post, however, in which he sought to make an obscure reference to Mel Brooks while criticizing the Marvel movie “Black Panther” for profiting off of a predominantly Black viewing audience.
Robinson’s post referenced the shekel, an Israeli currency, but didn’t allude to Brooks or the context he was seeking to reference in his post. Robinson wrote in his memoir that people were understandably upset by what he had written.
“It’s the only time I’ve ever apologized for anything I put on Facebook,” his memoir read. “It did come out wrong. I knew the truth of what I was trying to say, but I should have chosen different words.”
Early voting now underway
Voting officially began in North Carolina on Friday, with mail-in ballots making their way to more than 5,000 voters who had requested them.
Detailed instructions on how to request, complete and return a mail-in ballot are available here.
Voters have until 5 p.m. Feb. 27 to request an absentee ballot and must have them received by their county elections board by 7:30 p.m. March 5 — the time polls close on Election Day. Because North Carolina no longer has a three-day grace period for mail-in ballots to be accepted after the election, voters seeking to cast ballots by mail are encouraged to request and return them well ahead of Election Day.
In-person early voting begins Feb. 15 and ends March 2.
Earls fight with Judicial Standards Commission over
A probe into comments North Carolina Supreme Court Justice Anita Earls made about racial bias within the judiciary has ended, she announced on Wednesday.
Earls, a Black woman who has been outspoken on racial justice issues, faced a complaint brought forward to the Judicial Standards Commission after appearing to criticize her Supreme Court colleagues in a June interview with Law360.
Alleged Nazi allowed to stay on NC ballot
The North Carolina State Board of Elections on Tuesday unanimously voted to keep GOP activist Joseph Gibson on the North Carolina ballot, despite a decades-old felony history.
Gibson, who denies accusations of being a Nazi, is running against GOP incumbent Rep. Reece Pyrtle in a highly conservative district that swung for former President Donald Trump by 32 percentage points in 2020.
Pyrtle defeated Gibson in 2022 by 60 percentage points. GOP leaders sought to keep Gibson off the ballot, citing his embrace of extremist groups, as outlined in a 2022 Anti-Defamation League report.
Screenshots of social media posts show Gibson received support from the neo-Nazi National Socialist Movement. The ADL report also found that Gibson espoused anti-Semitic views, including a 2022 post on Gab in which he wrote that “jewish owned bankers and media are the deceivers and liars that have funded and started every war since the foundations of this country.”
Tweet of the Week
This didn’t age very well, but I thought it was creative for a young Bills fan to hold up a meme of Taylor Swift hypothetically ditching her Chiefs boyfriend Travis Kelce for Bills Quarterback Josh Allen. Spoiler Alert: Swifties got the last laugh.
5 essential reads
Insurance commissioner pays friend & donor a high wage to drive him on state business (Dan Kane and Kyle Ingram // Raleigh News & Observer)
We tested the transparency of NC legislators. Their emails show pleas to reject casinos. (Avi Bajpai // Raleigh News & Observer)
GOP governor primary heats up as Graham airs TV ads criticizing Robinson over Holocaust posts (Steve Harrison // WFAE)
Republicans Try To Get One of Their Own Off the Ballot (Carli Brosseau // The Assembly)
Biden visits North Carolina, a state he hopes to win in November, to promote internet access (Josh Boak // The Associated Press)
What to watch for
MONDAY: In North Carolina’s most-crowded primary, 12 of 14 congressional candidates vying for the seat of outgoing Democratic Rep. Wiley Nickel will gather together for a forum in Cary. According to the Western Wake Republican Club, the dozen scheduled attendees seeking to hold the 13th Congressional District seat are Chris Baker, DeVan Barbour, Kelly Daughtry, Marcus Dellinger, Brad Knott, Steve Loor, Josh McConkey, Siddhanth Sharma, Matt Shoemaker, Eric Stevenson, Fred Von Canon and Kenny Xu. This race is all but assured to head to a second primary on May 14 between the top two vote-getters.
FRIDAY: We’ll get our first real look at how aspiring North Carolina officeholders are doing financially heading into the March 5 primary. Candidate reports for Council of State, NC Supreme Court, NC Court of Appeals, General Assembly and other races are due. However, the data only covers how much a candidate raised and spent between July 1 and Dec. 31. Because candidate filing window ended Dec. 15, many candidates entered late and few solicit donations aggressively over the holidays, the information may be limited. So you should take in the fundraising numbers with a grain of salt. A more revealing campaign finance report will emerge Feb. 27, when candidates must report their fundraising hauls from Jan. 1 thru Feb. 17. Congressional candidates report their numbers on Jan. 31.
TBD: I’ll be closely watching for a ruling from a federal judge on the fate of the state Senate map, which could come any day now. Given the judge’s line of questioning and earlier orders issued in the case, it appears unlikely the map will be immediately struck down. Democrats would then escalate the dispute to the U.S. Court of Appeals.
Thank you and a reminder…
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