The Mark Robinson scandal just got even uglier tonight for Donald Trump

| 8:40 pm EDT September 19, 2024
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The Republican Party of North Carolina appeared to spend all morning trying to force its own candidate Mark Robinson to drop out of the race for Governor of North Carolina, as his worsening scandals have turned into a full blown crisis. Forcing Robinson out of the race at this late date would be tantamount to forfeiting. But the hope was that with Robinson out of the race and thus out of the headlines, his scandals might not serve to suppress Republican turnout in North Carolina quite so badly.

But as it turns out, the Republican Party is so dysfunctional, it couldn’t even pull off its own plan. This evening the North Carolina GOP announced that it’s firmly standing behind Mark Robinson, and chalked the whole thing up to a “smear” campaign.

Of course Mark Robinson could still end up being forced out of the race. But they’d have to get rid of him by midnight eastern time tonight in order for another candidate to be eligible to take his place. With the NC GOP issuing a show of support for Robinson just four hours before the deadline, it doesn’t look like Robinson is going to drop out.

In such case it’s bad news for Donald Trump. He’s counting on winning North Carolina as part of his increasingly narrow path to 270 electoral votes. If Mark Robinson’s implosion serves to depress Republican turnout in North Carolina by even 1%, that could be enough to decide the outcome of the state.