By Cash Michaels
Less than a month away from the March 5th Republican gubernatorial primary, and candidate Dale Folwell, in an exclusive interview, relentlessly bashed GOP frontrunner Lt. Governor Mark Robinson, accusing him of “fleecing” everyone who comes in contact with him, and being a “counterfeit conservative,” among other things.
“There’s not one of your readers who has been able to keep a job by not showing up for work,” Folwell charged, insisting that his remarks about Robinson be “on the record.”
“Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson has been the most AWOL public servant in my 30-year career.”
“Last year, he showed up to preside over the [state] Senate ten percent of the time. And now he’s playing ‘hide and seek,’ and talking about ‘God coming down and whipping people on a white horse’ that challenge anything that he says or does.”
Folwell continued, “ But most importantly, I think for your readers [to know] is that not only does he not show up for work, but he will not show up for any job interview to be the governor of North Carolina.”
When asked if the lieutenant governor has shown up for any of the debates the Republican candidates have participated in, Folwell replied, “Every debate that we’ve had, he’s refused to come. Every debate scheduled, including the one last week with WRAL [TV], he refused to participate in. And I’ve not seen him on the campaign trail…period, at any county or district convention.”
While there is no debate on record that shows Mark Robinson participating in, a cursory check of Robinson’s Facebook campaign page did show a series of campaign rallies scheduled from January for Johnston, Cumberland, Wilkes, Person, and this month in Pitt, Nash, and Cherokee counties. So he is on the campaign trail in at least a limited fashion, contrary to Fowell’s assertion.
As of press time, Robinson’s campaign had not replied to repeated requests for interviews from the NC Black Publishers’ Association. But he has made appearances with conservative media outlets like Fox News.
“He has four Highway Patrol [officers] assigned to him,” Folwell continued. “Written into the budget assigned to him only while he’s lieutenant governor. This is in black and white. [He] travels all over the state, all over the country and all over the world, at taxpayers’ expense.”
In 2023 alone press reports show, Robinson logged several trips to other states for conservative political conferences, including a recent trip to Mar-a-lago Resort in Palm Beach, Florida to receive former President Donald Trump’s coveted endorsement for governor.
A few months ago, Robinson also traveled to Israel to help build his political profile with the Jewish community after making in the past what many of his critics charged were “vile” remarks about Jews.
After checking again to make sure that his statements were indeed on the record, state Treasurer Folwell went on to say, “You cannot have gaps between your personal life, your financial life, your campaign life, and your public service life. And anyone who’s ever come in contact with Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson or his family, including his current donors, have been fleeced.”
After being told by a reporter that those were strong words, Folwell replied, “Well, he hasn’t paid his rent, he hasn’t paid his property taxes on his car for years, and when he said that had been taken care of, he found out that it had not been taken care of. He has declared bankruptcy three times. He takes campaign money and spends it on a wardrobe for his wife who makes more money than he does off the state.”
“And you could just look at the questions that are being asked about his campaign ethically where hundreds of thousands of dollars are not being accounted for.”
A Jan.31st expose titled “Mark Robinson: Teflon Man,” in The Assembly online magazine, made similar allegations after an investigation into the Lt. governor and his wife.
When asked why Robinson allegedly behaves this way, Treasurer Folwell replied, “Because he’s entitled.”
“He does not own a firearm,” Folwell said. “He gave a speech in front of the Greensboro City Council about a gun show. We all know… somebody paid him to do that. Very shortly thereafter he quit his job.”
Folwell was referring to the fiery 2018 remarks Robinson, then a private citizen, made before the Greensboro City Council on behalf of the rights of gun owners. The appearance went viral and propelled Robinson into the 2020 Lt. Governor’s race.
Folwell did not offer any factual substantiation that Robinson was paid to make that appearance.
“If anybody ever questions him,” Folwell continued, “…he always plays the victim. And that’s why I came out and tweeted today about all of the awful comments he’s made, one of the most awful is the question he asked rhetorically, ‘If you beat the birddog hell out of your wife at the mall, is that still domestic violence?’ So I asked him a question on Twitter (also known as X) today. ‘Have you ever hit a woman? Yes or No?’ ‘cause I don’t know why someone would ask that question.”
Folwell said that Robinson did not respond, adding that he could not imagine uttering such a remark as beating the “…birddog hell” out of a woman.
Folwell then called Mark Robinson “a counterfeit conservative,” saying that when it comes fighting higher health care costs, higher prescription drug costs, and fighting federal government overreaches, “…he is not a person who can solve those problems.”
Folwell charged that on every issue, Robinson was “for it before he was against it, or against it before he was for it.”
When asked if Robinson became governor, what would that do to the Republican Party, Folwell replied, “Our party is a mess! We’re not the Number One Party or the Number Two Party. We’re the Number Three Party because of counterfeit conservatives like him,” later clarifying that unaffiliated and Democrats constitute the two dominant political parties in North Carolina, in his opinion.
“He’s history’s latest example of someone who is trying to rise to power by spewing hate,” Folwell charged.
Despite his torrid opinion of Robinson, Folwell seemed upbeat about his own low-profile campaign’s chances to overcome the controversial GOP frontrunner’s massive lead in the polls.
Folwell then pointed to a poll purportedly taken at the Mecklenburg County Republican Women Club before and after a recent gubernatorial debate he took part in. Folwell alleges that Robinson’s numbers there went from 62 to 13, and Folwell’s numbers from 14 to 42.
However, there is no record of Robinson being at that debate, and two of the other candidates in the race at the time have since left.
Folwell maintained that Robinson does not have the endorsement of the State Employees [Association of North Carolina], nor of Republican former Gov. Jim Martin [Folwell does].
Folwell also says that Robinson also has not gotten the endorsement of Grassroots NC [from the Grassroots NC website] regarding Folwell and Robinson, “Both candidates have expressed support for constitutional carry (of guns) and have promised to advocate it to the General Assembly. However, only Folwell has said so in public.”
The group seems to like both Folwell and Robinson, calling it a “conundrum,” but strongly recommended voting against GOP second -place candidate Bill Graham, who apparently is not as strong on gun ownership.
“By the way, endorsements are flipping from him to me,” Folwell says. “God is not chewing on his fingernails as to who the next governor is going to be. He already knows. That’s why it’s important to know who you are, who you love, and who you belong to.”
Folwell ended the interview by asking for readers’ prayers and support by going to Dalefolwell.com., and for their vote on March 5th.
Currently, according to the latest Meredeth College poll conducted January 26th -31st, Folwell is running last in the three-candidate GOP gubernatorial race with 4%. Bill Graham, the wealthy Salisbury attorney who has been spending millions of his own money attacking Robinson on television, is second with 9%, and Robinson seems virtually unstoppable with 34%.
In that same poll, 42% of likely Republican voters were undecided.
Recently, Robinson has dismissed campaign attacks on him by Graham and others as being from RINOs – “Republicans in name only.”
For Republican and unaffiliated voters, Dale Folwell concluded, “I’m the first one to announce, I’m the first one to file, and I’m the first name on the ballot.”
Editor’s note – As noted in this story, we tried to present facts on record to balance Treasurer Folwell’s particular criticisms of Lt. Gov. Robinson. In addition we reached out to the Lt. Governor’s office, and the Robinson campaign, for at least a statement from them regarding Folwell’s remarks. There was no response from either by press time.
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