Jacob Brooks: Mark Robinson has something to teach all of us

GUEST FEATURE

February 3, 2025


As former N.C. Lt Gov. Mark Robinson exits public life, Jacob Brooks reflects on the scandal-plagued former politician. 

By Jacob Brooks

Last fall, I was making my rounds at the county fairs across rural North Carolina. The smell of funnel cakes and the sight of big smiles, hearty backslaps, and warm greetings are always highlights of the season.

Because it was an election year, the booths and yard signs were on display. New to me was the political candidate merch – especially Mark Robinson merch, the former lieutenant governor and the Republican nominee last year for governor. He was slinging “Robinson” branded hats, shirts, stickers, and key chains like a rock band at a civic center. 

His campaign was taking rural N.C. by storm. 

Mark Robinson won more than 60 counties in the gubernatorial race, even though his campaign seemed like a string of nightmares. He ultimately lost the race to Governor Josh Stein by about 15 percent.  

Robinson’s campaign will be remembered for his derogatory comments toward women and other groups, including allegations of the misuse of funds at the nonprofit run by his wife, and unhinged social media rants and tirades. (Robinson has said that he believed he was unfairly targeted.)

Last week, he dropped a lawsuit against CNN and said he would retire from public life, ruling out a run for U.S. Senate in 2026. 

Before he departs the stage, we should consider what this man means for North Carolina.

I don’t find it surprising that Robinson nearly became governor, even though he didn’t have the experience and background to be elevated to the highest office in North Carolina. 

I’m asking those of us who voted against him to try to understand him. Plenty of our fellow North Carolinians felt they did. And perhaps through him, we can understand them.

I grew up with men like Mark Robinson, a former factory worker from Greensboro. They were set in their ways, fixed in their convictions. When challenged, they’ve got the loudest bark. Kind of the “let-me-hike-my-britches-up-and-learn-you-a-thing-or-two” vibe. Meeting them on their level is a prerequisite for getting through their armor. Most of the male role models in my life have been the “rub-a-little-dirt-on-it” type. 

I could not distinguish his campaign optics from candidate convictions from controversial language used for internet fame. Regardless of the authenticity of his pitch, I understand why a lot of people bought what he was selling.

It’s my experience that men like this are trying to do right by their families. They’re led by their convictions. They’re full of pride. Their lives are full of stories that don’t make the latest news cycle: they volunteer to coach their kids’ rec sports team. The folks who viewed Robinson as a leader found things like these in his story that resonated with their own lives and their conception of the traits of a leader. 

I feel sympathy for Robinson, perhaps because my circumstances growing up have some parallels to his. My dad drove a truck for K-Mart and later became an independent operator. He wasn’t home for much of my early childhood. When I was around nine or so, he decided to leverage some of the land on the dying family farm to finance his entrepreneurial venture of starting a small trucking business. We hauled frozen poultry up and down the southeast. Needless to say, I grew up around a motley crew of men and learned a lot about life from the echoes of a C.B. radio by age eleven. But at least my dad was now able to stay at home. 

Like Robinson, I lost layers of innocence at a young age. 

Robinson, given his past and public disdain for so many North Carolinians from all walks of life, deserved to lose. But the lessons are clear: the chasms between political factions in our communities are growing. Echo chambers have developed; seemingly, the realities of our different communities seem further apart. What is considered bona fide leadership by one subset of our state is entirely different from the other. 

Again, Robinson won 60 of North Carolina’s rural counties. While he may be exiting stage right, the mechanisms that enabled his rise to power are with us. We, as North Carolinians, would be wise to pause, reflect, and work actively to bridge the gap.

I’ll leave you with a quote bestowed upon me by one of my favorite figures in North Carolina history, former N.C. Supreme Court Justice Willis Whichard. “The tradition of all the dead generations weighs like a nightmare on the brain of the living,” he once said. 

This nightmare of division will endure until we wake up. 


A man with short, light brown hair and light stubble stands outdoors with a serious expression. He is wearing a brown suede jacket over a black shirt. The background consists of blurred green trees, suggesting a natural setting.

Jacob Brooks, from Ennice, N.C. is the North Carolina Director for Patriotic Millionaires, a nonprofit focused on tax and wage reform.

This column is syndicated by Beacon Media and can be republished anywhere for free under Beacon’s guidelines