Mark Robinson, North Carolina's lieutenant governor and a gubernatorial candidate, is a MAGA acolyte through and through. I’ve written on why select Black conservatives like him have risen in the GOP in recent years, but in short, his election denialism, blatant anti-intellectualism and outspoken bigotry against Jewish people, women, LGBTQ people and other marginalized groups have made him a popular figure on the right and earned him a space in elite conservative circles, too.
Just weeks ago, Trump praised the candidate during an event at Mar-a-Lago, saying, "I think you're better than Dr. Martin Luther King."
Now the Daily Beast is out with more evidence to suggest Robinson boasts an extensive right-wing Rolodex.
The outlet reports on documentation it obtained through a FOIA request that Robinson's calendar listed a previously unreported meeting with Virginia "Ginni" Thomas, the conservative extremist and wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, in March 2021. The subject of the meeting is unknown but came mere weeks after the Jan. 6 Capitol riot — the culmination of Thomas and other conservatives’ pressure campaign to overturn Trump’s 2020 election loss. Neither Thomas nor Robinson returned the Daily Beast's request for comment.
The Daily Beast reports:
“According to a copy of Robinson’s official schedule, which was produced through a Freedom of Information Act request, the lieutenant governor had a meeting with Thomas on March 30, 2021. But Robinson didn’t just speak with Thomas that afternoon; the calendar note indicates he met with Thomas and a group she helped run called Frontliners for Liberty.
Here’s a CNBC report on FrontLiners for Liberty, a Facebook "activist" group that Thomas worked with to promote attempts to overturn Trump’s election loss, as well as to connect members with Trump associates like lawyer (and Trump co-defendant) John Eastman.
The Beast's report on Robinson’s meeting with Thomas follows the recent release of audio from a speech Robinson gave in 2021, in which he unabashedly claimed Joe Biden “stole” the election.
Thomas, for her part, is a conservative activist and her husband is arguably the most well-known justice on the court, so it’s not surprising that she was able to reach someone like Robinson. And the House Jan. 6th Committee revealed Thomas was in contact with the Trump White House — specifically, then-chief of staff Mark Meadows — about attempting to overturn the election results, so it's also not surprising that she evidently wanted to connect an election-denier like Robinson with her pro-Trump group.
But the meeting does shine a bit of light on both Thomas and Robinson. For Thomas, it fills in some details about the extent of her organizing since Jan. 6, 2021 — which has been largely, but not completely, out of public view.
And for Robinson, it illustrates the type of person North Carolinians could get as governor if he wins his primary race and the general election in November: a conspiracy theorist with intimate connections to conservative elites who were deeply involved in the effort to overthrow democracy.