“Tillis told Axios that Robinson’s campaign was an ‘embarrassment’ and that North Carolina Republicans should ‘learn a lesson’ from his candidacy”

DC political hack and Big Oil lobbyist Michael Whatley launched his Senate campaign with his ties to Mark Robinson “loom[ing] large.” Whatley has “embraced” Robinson, calling him a “man of the people” and pushing others to “emulate” him. North Carolina Republicans have even blamed Whatley for Robinson’s rise by “ignor[ing] many known flaws.”

Read all about Whatley’s praise for Mark Robinson below.

American Journal News: Whatley runs for Senate as Robinson scandals resurface

Jesse Valentine | July 31, 2025

• Michael Whatley is trying to focus on the future in his U.S. Senate campaign in North Carolina, but the shadow of the GOP’s last statewide candidate, former Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson, is likely to loom large.
• Robinson lost the 2024 governor’s race by almost 15 points, in part due to his reputation for making sexist and bigoted remarks, including in the comment section of a porn website. He also embraced several far-right policies, including a total abortion ban.
• “Mark is a man of tremendous faith and a very solid conservative,” Whatley said in a September 2020 radio interview, when Robinson was first running for lieutenant governor. “I think he missed his calling as a Baptist preacher. He’s one of the most elegant, powerful speakers that I’ve seen in politics in generations.
• Whatley added that Robinson is a “man of the people.”
• When Robinson won the 2020 race for lieutenant governor, Whatley said on social media that other Republicans should emulate him.
• When Robinson secured the Republican nomination for governor in March 2024, Whatley publicly endorsed him.
• Around the same time, former North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory, a fellow Republican, told CNN that Whatley was partially to blame for Robinson’s rise. McCory said Whatley “ignored many known flaws that many of us knew about [Robinson] and just assumed they’d be brushed over. But [Robinson’s campaign] has been a ticking time bomb for several years now.”
• […] On July 23, Tillis told Axios that Robinson’s campaign was an “embarrassment” and that North Carolina Republicans should “learn a lesson” from his candidacy.

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