North Carolina primary governor race winners: Mark Robinson secures nomination

North Carolina Republican Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson has won his party’s primary for governor in the state, NBC News projects.

The Democratic primary remains too early to call.

North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein had led the Democratic field in polling and fundraising.

The eventual general election matchup for governor in North Carolina is all but certain to feature many of the same themes that will define the national 2024 campaign.

The stakes will be high in the race to replace term-limited Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper, as North Carolina is just one of two presidential swing states with a race for governor.

With Republicans in solid control of the state Legislature, a win by Robinson would give the party a trifecta and the ability to move forward with policies such as abortion restrictions and anti-LGBTQ measures.

Democrats are eager to paint Robinson as an extremist on reproductive rights, education and LGBTQ issues, and have already begun utilizing a lengthy paper trail of controversial public statements he’s made.

Among them are Robinson saying at a campaign event last month that he’d work to eventually abolish abortion rights in the state if elected governor.

“We got it down to 12 weeks. The next goal is to get it down to six, and then just keep moving from there,” he said.

Robinson also recently suggested that transgender women should be arrested if they use women’s restrooms, adding at a campaign event last month that people who “are confused” about their gender should “find a corner outside somewhere to go” to the bathroom. Robinson has also described the LGBTQ community as “filth.”

Opponents also point out that Robinson has slammed public school teachers as “wicked people” and has cast doubt on whether the Holocaust occurred, calling its existence “hogwash” in 2017 Facebook posts. In 2022, he said he owned assault rifles so that he’d be prepared if “the government got too big for its britches.”

The nonpartisan Cook Political Report has rated the race for governor as “Lean Democratic.”