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ROSE HILL — A meeting room in the Rose Hill Restaurant was packed Friday afternoon for a visit from gubernatorial candidate and current Lieutenant Governor Mark Robinson. The crowd heard a speech from Robinson, and were able to meet with him briefly for photos and autographs afterward.
NC Rep. Jimmy Dixon, who represents Duplin and Wayne counties in the state legislature, introduced Robinson, saying the two became friends about six years ago. “That friendship has increased and intensified over the years,” Dixon said. “I consider myself a good friend of Mark Robinson.”
When it was his turn to speak, Robinson asked for prayers for the folks of western North Carolina and said he was focused on making sure hurricane survivors are ready for the winter and also ready to vote in November.
“I want to clear up a few misconceptions that’s floating around out there,” he said, referring to what he called “great big fat whopper lies” from Democrats and the news media. “If anyone asks you if Mark Robinson voted for the funding that the Senate passed on Wednesday, tell them Mark Robinson presided over the Senate while it was being passed. I was actually there. The vote that they talked about me missing was nothing more than a ceremonial vote of the Council of State.”
He also admitted that two of his staff members quit after a CNN report alleging Robinson’s controversial statements on a porn website. But Robinson said the campaign was better without them. He hinted at a lawsuit against CNN, which his campaign formally announced on Sunday.
“For an elected official, I have said some outlandish things,” he said. “I don’t back off of the things I say, folks. But I’m not going to back up and cower when somebody tries to say that I said something that I did not say. I’m not going to take it lying down.”
Robinson said people call him “mean” and “arrogant.” “It’s time for us to stop focusing on personalities, people being nice,” he said.
He ended his speech by encouraging folks to vote Republican.
After meeting with his supporters for photos, Robinson spoke with Duplin Journal specifically about the county and what it needs at the state level.
“The number one thing we have to do, and this applies to just about everything in the state, I think people underestimate the importance of us staying fiscally responsible,” he said. “Being fiscally responsible and remaining fiscally responsible and … having the money we need, we can come to places like Duplin County and identify places of growth so that we can make investments. And that’s what we need to be doing at the state level. We don’t need to be spending money on projects just because we have the money or think a project would be a ‘good idea.’ We need to make investments to help those places continue to grow. I think that’s the number one and number two things we can always do to help counties like Duplin.”
He said he sees the biggest challenge facing counties like Duplin as “climate change extremists that want to take away the implements and some of the materials that farmers need to be able to continue to do what they need to do.”
He added that rural, agricultural counties also need to find industries that can help farmers and help the farm base grow. “One of those, I believe, is pharmaceuticals from agricultural products,” he told Duplin Journal. “I think one great idea would be to take some of those agricultural products and cultivate them right here in counties like Duplin and then build facilities right here in Duplin County, manufacturing facilities that can turn those into the products we desperately need.”
“Each individual county in this state has its own unique set of standards and its own unique perspectives and there’s great things about all of them,” he added. “With Duplin County, I think the thing that sets it apart is the pride of the people.”
Robinson summed up by saying he’s running to be a “servant leader.”
“We want to partner with the people of Duplin County, and the people of North Carolina and leave it a better place than we found it.”
