‘I don’t WANT to be governor’ Robinson tells CPAC crowd | Eastern North Carolina Now

    Publisher's Note: This post appears here courtesy of the Carolina Journal. The author of this post is CJ Staff.

    Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson, the assumed Republican primary frontrunner for North Carolina governor in the 2024 election, was a keynote speaker at CPAC in Maryland on Saturday. He opened his speech by saying "In North Carolina, one of the most poorly kept secrets is that a guy named Mark Robinson may run for governor."

    CPAC is an annual meeting, the Conservative Political Action Conference, drawing conservative activists and elected officials from across the United States. Robinson was a front-page keynote address during the four-day conference, as was Rep. Dan Bishop, R-NC.

    While Robinson has not made any official announcement on his candidacy, in his book "We Are The Majority: The Life and Passions of a Patriot" he writes "I am quite serious about possibly running for governor". That led to some raised some eyebrows this weekend over Robinson's response when asked why he wanted to serve as governor.

    "I don't want to be the governor," he said. "Then I thought about it even deeper and said I didn't even want to be lieutenant governor."

    Robinson highlighted the word "want" numerous times during his speech. Pointing to the fact that many politicians want to run for public office for the wrong reasons.

    "They want to be a congressman, they want to be a senator, they want to be a governor, they want to be president, they want to be a big shot who pops his collar and looks down on the people."

    Robinson described a young man from Virginia in 1944 getting ready to storm Omaha Beach in the English Channel during World War II. He asked a series of questions as if he was talking to the young man.

    "Why did you want to join the army and come here to this place, why did you want to watch your friends be slaughtered, why do you want these Germans shooting at you, why do you want to leave your family and friends behind?" The crowd erupted in cheers as Robinson answered the question, "It's not about want, it's about service!"

    Once again, Robinson took aim at politicians in Washington, D.C.

    "You're not there to serve yourself and your self-interest, you're there to serve the people of this nation and the state you represent," he said, adding that his call to service are for his grandchildren. "I fight for every day to leave them a legacy of freedom, I don't need a legacy of a political career I need to leave a legacy of freedom for the people that I serve and that's exactly what I intend to do!"

    Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson will be giving the GOP response to Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper's State of the State address Monday night.