The 2024 Election season has already kicked off in North Carolina as candidates continue to hit the campaign trail and attend panels or debates. In recent weeks, local Republican parties or conservative organizations have hosted candidate forums to give voters a chance to learn about each person on the ballot.
However, the frontrunner for North Carolina’s gubernatorial race, current Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson, has failed to show up to not just one, but two candidate forums. The results: voters who voiced support for him before the start of the events left supporting other candidates.
Robinson was invited to two events this month — one hosted at Maggiano’s in Charlotte on September 13 and one at MacGregor Downs Country Club in Cary on September 12. He was a no-show at both forums.
“A lot of people changed their minds at [our] panel because Dale Folwell told us many things that we did not have prior knowledge of like, he [Robinson] doesn’t come to a lot of the committee meetings,” Carol Kuester, president of the Republican Women of Greater Charlotte, told Carolina Journal for a story on September 25. “I think that’s really what hit people was that he wasn’t showing up for these committee meetings that he as a lieutenant governor is supposed to show up for…”
Folwell — the current state treasurer and now candidate for governor — as well as former Congressman Mark Walker, businessman Jesse Thomas and former state Sen. Andy Wells attended the September 13 forum. Wells was unable to attend the September 12 event due to scheduling conflicts according to the Carolina Journal.
Forum attendees participated in straw polls before and after the event. According to the Carolina Journal’s reporting, 53 percent of respondents changed their minds after the September 13 event, with Robinson losing support. The first poll had 66 percent of attendees supporting Robinson and by the end, he only had 11 percent of attendees saying they would vote for Robinson. Folwell and Walker gained the most, increasing to 41 percent and 40 percent respectively.
“Many of them said Dale Folwell, and many of them said Mark Walker, and they were going to switch from Mark Robinson,” said Kuester. “So it changed people’s minds, and it has changed from Mark Robinson being way ahead too. I think Mark Walker is closing the gap somewhat from what I heard.”
The September 12 event had similar results — Dale Folwell and Mark Walker tied at 35 percent, followed by Mark Robinson at 5 percent, Jesse Thomas at 2 percent and Andy Wells with 0 percent.
Kuester told the Carolina Journal she wished Robinson would’ve showed up to answer voters questions about him, but even now she’s starting to have doubts about his ability to be governor.
“I really like the way he speaks, you know, he speaks his mind, and he comes out with a lot of things that we as conservatives are interested in, the schools, police,” she said. “There are all these major things that we are having trouble with. He just hits it between the eyes, I mean he talks about it and says how he’s going to change it, but then when you hear if he’s [not] showing up [at meetings], you’re just wondering if he is going to follow through on those promises, so I don’t know.”
Qnotes reached out to Dale Folwell and Mark Robinson’s teams regarding the shifting support. Neither had responded by deadline.