Mark Robinson grew up in Greensboro, served in the Army Reserve and worked in furniture manufacturing, where he says he was laid off after jobs were offshored. He also worked in the child care industry in a business run by his wife. He and his wife have two children and two grandchildren. Robinson gained public attention in 2018 when he delivered an address to the Greensboro City Council around firearms rights. Currently Lieutenant Governor of North Carolina.
The job
The Governor prepares and presents a state budget, appoints many executive branch officials and members of boards and commissions, has veto power over the legislature.
Our Q&A with Robinson
NC Health News reached out to Mark Robinson’s campaign multiple times without receiving a response. Eventually, we were able to attend a campaign event where we were limited to only four questions. To fill in the gaps, we researched Robinson’s positions on the questions by searching social media, tracking his public comments, searching his campaign websites and conducting searches of other media outlets.
Do you have a plan to help control health care/ pharmaceutical costs?
No information found.
Where do you stand on time limits for Medicaid and work requirements for the program?
“While a number of elected Republicans have changed their minds on Medicaid expansion recently, Robinson isn’t one of them,” according to a Business NC mini-profile.
“I’m not in favor of Medicaid expansion,” he told the news outlet. “I hope that it fails because I don’t want our health care in this state to be turned over to the federal government. … We have enough talented people in North Carolina that we can come up with our own healthcare system that would be far better than anything the federal government can provide in Medicaid expansion.”
Robinson also told the Wilmington Area Business Journal Power Breakfast in June that “Work is a determining factor in our success or failure,” according to an article in the Wilmington Business Journal.
What can North Carolina do to support rural hospitals?
“The number one thing we can do is to continue to remain fiscally responsible so we can make wise investments into rural North Carolina,” Robinson said in a short interview. “One of the things that I’m bound and determined to do is to not sit in the governor’s mansion and wait to see what happens. We need to get on the ground and realize what’s happening. That way, the state itself can start making the substantive investments needed in infrastructure and other things that will make that health care possible through private industry.
“Private industry depends on government to make sure that wherever they’re going to invest in that they have the right type of infrastructure, the right type of public safety and those things so remaining fiscally responsible so we can make wise investments will be the number one thing we’ll do.”
PFAS contamination is a state-wide issue; How do you plan to address this issue?
“The number one thing I think we need to do on any of those issues, whether it’s talking about the quality of our water, whether it’s talking about the safety, of taking care of our environment, is to lean on solid science,” Robinson said in a short interview. “We don’t want to sway too far to the right, too far to the left. We want to make sure we’re employing people who are going to stick with solid science to help us make the right decisions, to make sure that not only our water quality is great, but our environment in general is great.”
Is North Carolina ready for the next pandemic?
Robinson has been critical of the pandemic response from current governor Roy Cooper, but NC Health News could not find any information on how Robinson views the state’s readiness for future pandemics.
In 2009, Congress required more transparency from hospitals on their charitable work. What role, if anything, can the state do about requirements for nonprofit hospitals to justify their tax exemptions?
“I think when it comes to making those connections between public and private partnerships, I think that’s a question that’s best suited for our representatives, because they would be the ones that would be working closely with those entities,” Robinson said in a short interview. “I can assure you, if there’s any legislation that comes across my desk is going to make it more transparent and better for the customer on their end. We’re going to sign that legislation to make sure it gets done.”
What would you do if the legislature were to keep current abortion rules in place/What would you do if the legislature were to pass a heartbeat bill?
Robinson has expressed a number of opinions about abortion.
He has admitted that early in his relationship with his wife Yolanda that he paid for her to have an abortion. This summer, the pair appeared on an ad talking about that time in their lives and where Robinson described his change of heart around abortion. “Over 33 years ago, before we were married and before we had kids we had an abortion,” he said, describing this as the wrong decision. “It’s because of this experience and our spiritual journey that we are so adamantly pro-life.”
In September, NBC News aired video of Robinson saying at an event this fall that he’d prefer an outright ban on the procedure. But Robinson has softened his position in more recent interviews with the media.
“I am a no compromise person when it comes to abortion. That is my personal and religious opinion, but that is part and parcel, separate from my duty as an elected official,” he told WSOC TV reporter Joe Bruno. “Now I have to make up my mind whether or not I’m going to be mature enough as an elected official to live with consensus or fight it. I am mature enough to live with consensus. That is why I support a 12-week decision that was made after a long and healthy debate.”
But in September, he said in audio released by a Democratic group that, “I would love to get down to six weeks, I would like to get down to zero weeks.”
What can the state do to improve access to child care?
“Child care is in such a frenzy right now,” Robinson said in a short interview. “I used to be in the childcare business. I ran a wonderful daycare center at Greensboro, and one of the hardest things to do is keep employees. It’s incredibly tough for these folks to keep employees. Now you’re talking about fast food restaurants paying people $15 or $20 an hour, where daycares are paying them $12.
“We’re going to have to put our heads together. I’ve already talked to a number of people who own daycare centers in the state. Long time daycare owners, they have some great solutions, but this goes back to something I said a long time ago about being a governor with an open door policy, instead of relying strictly on bureaucrats and on our legislators, which I’m not denigrating either,” he said.
“The real solutions to our problem lies within the energy of the people that are out there that are facing those decisions. We’ve got to bring those people to the table, let them tell us what our problems are, and then we have to partner with them to find a solution, and I believe that we can.”
What steps would you take to improve access to mental health services and to address the opioid overdose crisis?
In an interview with Newsmax in May, 2023, Robinson claimed “We’re doing absolutely nothing,” on a “broken mental health system.”
In response to a question about the need for gun control, Robinson said, “I say hogwash because the problem again is not the guns. The problem is, in this nation we are focused on the wrong things. We have a broken mental health system, first off, that we’re doing absolutely nothing about in most of our country.”
He also said that he thinks the “opioid crisis goes back to the border.”
“I don’t intend to do like our current attorney general did and sue the drug company,” he said, referring to Josh Stein, his opponent in the gubernatorial race. “The drug company is not the one out here on the streets peddling the dope. The drug companies are not the ones to allow them to come over our border to bring it into your neighborhood and sell to your children illegally. You know who’s doing that? Drug gangs, gangs, dope peddlers.”
Finally, he said about the provision of mental health services, he said there should be more reliance on private providers. “What I think we’re going to have to do is, we’re going to have to talk to private entities and we’re going to have to put our heads together with those folks to bring some solutions.”