The report says Stein’s huge win showed how to “focus less on abstract issues and identity politics, and connect with voters on the issues they say matter most, including the economy, disaster relief, and addressing housing affordability.”
So, I (in the UK) couldn't remember what Josh Stein's campaign was like. It turns out he was running against
Mark Robinson - and that name I remember.
Near the end of his term, Robinson won the Republican nomination for governor. His campaign was checkered by a history of incendiary and controversial statements, including about abortion, Adolf Hitler, the LGBTQ community, women's rights, civil rights, and Holocaust denial. Robinson was also linked to extremist comments on an online pornography forum during his campaign.[1] After losing the election to Democratic state attorney general Josh Stein, Robinson announced his retirement from politics.[2][3]
...
On September 19, 2024, CNN reported that Robinson had made many graphic remarks on the online pornographic forum Nude Africa from 2008 to 2012 under the username "minisoldr", with Robinson being linked to accounts named "minisoldr" on several websites, including Twitter, Pinterest, YouTube, Disqus, and BlackPlanet.[1] The remarks made on Nude Africa included expressing support for slavery, using various homophobic, racial, and antisemitic slurs, enjoying transgender pornography, admitting to peeping at women showering in public showers without their knowledge when he was 14 and continuing to fantasize about the experience as an adult, self-identifying as a "perv", and calling himself a "Black Nazi" and stating his support for Adolf Hitler over Barack Obama as United States president.[1][43] Another remark labelled Martin Luther King, Jr. a "commie bastard" and then stated: "If I was in the KKK I would have called him Martin Lucifer Koon!" CNN highlighted that "minisoldr" on Nude Africa shared many of Robinson's personal details, and used several unconventional phrases that Robinson later used on Facebook from 2014 to 2017.[1] Robinson denied the allegations.[44][45] Without any evidence, he accused Josh Stein, his main opponent for the governorship, of being responsible for the discovery of the Nude Africa account[46] and claimed that the account was generated by artificial intelligence.[47][48] The Nude Africa posts by "minisoldr" were deleted on the same day as CNN's report about them.[49]
Weeks prior, online publication The Assembly had published allegations by six people who said they witnessed Robinson visiting video pornography shops up to five times a week in Greensboro in the 1990s and 2000s.[1][50] Politico published a story, on the same day as CNN, reporting that Robinson's email was registered on Ashley Madison, a website designed for married people seeking extramarital affairs.[51] Then, The Washington Post reported that "minisoldr" on Nude Africa discussed having extramarital sex with his wife's sister, and also praised Hitler's Mein Kampf.[49] Politico followed up by reviewing data breaches from multiple websites and found that Robinson's email address had also been registered with other previously unreported dating websites, and that the IP address associated with these accounts (including the Nude Africa account) was from a location not far from Robinson's home.[52]
Before the CNN and Politico stories broke, Robinson was reportedly pressured by staff and members of the Trump presidential campaign to withdraw from the gubernatorial race due to rumors of a controversial story leaking to the news that involved Robinson's activity on pornographic websites in the 2000s.[53][54] Jonathan Bridges, who managed the campaign of former congressman Mark Walker, and Scott Lassiter, a Republican candidate for state senate, both called on Robinson to suspend his campaign.[43] Robinson announced he planned to stay in the race.[44] The Democratic National Committee then launched an ad campaign in North Carolina to highlight Trump's endorsement of him.[55] Within three days of CNN's report, most of Robinson's gubernatorial campaign staff resigned, leaving only three staffers.[56][57] According to WRAL-TV, Robinson had repeatedly rebuffed offers from backers to get him in touch with specialized tech firms that could help him investigate the comments whose authenticity he was disputing, which led to a loss of trust among his former staffers.[58]
I mean, you can't read anything into a win against Robinson, apart from "Stein is a respectable human being, and his opponent was not". That an autopsy is trying to draw "lessons" from it is absurd.
= new reply since forum marked as read
