North Carolina Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson during his appearance at the Republican National Convention in July. (Photo by Leon Neal/Getty Images)
SIOUX FALLS, SD – A political fundraiser featuring a video message from a controversial Republican candidate for governor of North Carolina further divided the factions within the South Dakota Republican Party on Tuesday night.
The message came from North Carolina Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson. CNN recently reported that Robinson made racist and sexually explicit remarks more than a decade ago on a pornographic website’s message board. The report said Robinson, who has a recent history of anti-transgender rhetoric, said he enjoyed watching transgender pornography, referred to himself as a “black Nazi,” expressed support for reinstating slavery and praised Adolf Hitler.
Robinson had been scheduled to attend the event in person but said that “duties” — an apparent allusion to the Hurricane Helene disaster — had forced him to remain in North Carolina. He did not say what those duties were. He addressed the group via video from what he said was an airport from which he would be flying relief supplies to western North Carolina — action he said was made necessary by what he said was the “slow response” to the crisis by Gov. Roy Cooper.
WRAL.com reported Wednesday that Robinson — who has been a frequent no-show throughout his term of office at numerous state Senate sessions and other official meetings of state boards on which he serves — was the only Council of State member not to vote on Cooper’s request to declare a state of emergency in response to Helene. Despite this fact, Robinson has posted social media messages critical of the state and federal response — some of which included false or misleading assertions. In a Tuesday post on X, he falsely stated that “Joe Biden told the people of North Carolina they had no more supplies for us.”
The video speech occurred during the Dakota First Action political action committee’s Victory Gala. Toby Doeden, an Aberdeen businessman and founder of Dakota First Action, said his fellow Republicans who are condemning Robinson are hurting the party.
“CNN has no substantive proof,” Doeden said. “Republicans will eat their own. If he were on the left, not a single Democrat would have called for him to step down.”
Other Republicans react
South Dakota House Majority Leader Will Mortenson, R-Fort Pierre, condemned the event and called those hosting it non-Republicans.
“I spoke out against Nazis when they came to the Capitol this summer,” Mortenson said in a statement, referencing a June march in Pierre by a neo-Nazi group, “and don’t like them any better when they are in Sioux Falls. When you’re throwing a rally featuring a self-described Nazi, you’re not a Republican. You belong to a different party. There’s no room for Nazi sympathy in our party or in our state.”
Doeden considered but ultimately decided against challenging U.S. Rep. Dusty Johnson, R-South Dakota, in the June primary election. Doeden said he organized Tuesday’s event to celebrate the “America First conservatives” who won their June legislative primary elections, and to rally support for their general election campaigns.
Current state Republican leaders “aren’t conservatives,” Doeden alleged.
“They’re liberals that register as Republicans because they can’t get elected as Democrats,” he said. “These people are hacks. They’re clowns. They’re disgusting. I started my PAC to eradicate hacks like that from serving in the Legislature – period.”
Republican former state representative Casey Murschel called Robinson’s inclusion in the Sioux Falls event “an insult to every Republican in our state.”
“It is embarrassing and offensive to have a Republican group, Dakota First Action, celebrating Republican primary election victories by inviting an anti-woman misogynist to South Dakota,” Murschel said in a statement.
She was referring to Robinson’s abortion rhetoric and his support for an abortion ban. Murschel currently serves as chair of Republicans for Freedom Amendment G. That’s the Nov. 5 ballot measure that would re-establish abortion rights in South Dakota.
Robinson’s abortion comments have included saying, “Abortion in this country is not about protecting the lives of mothers, it’s about killing the child because you were not responsible enough to keep your skirt down.”
About 150 people attended the Sioux Falls event, including some Republican state lawmakers and legislative candidates. Robinson was originally billed as an in-person speaker, but ended up appearing by video as North Carolina recovers from severe damage caused by Hurricane Helene.
In his brief speech, Robinson criticized Democrats as people wanting to turn the country into a “socialist hellhole.”
“We’re no longer dealing with JFK, we’re no longer even dealing with Bill Clinton, we’re now dealing with confirmed socialists, confirmed communists,” Robinson said.
Ticket prices ranged from $250 for general admission to $20,000 for a “Chairman’s Sponsorship.” Doeden did not say how much money was raised, but said proceeds would go toward Dakota First Action’s mission. The next campaign finance reporting deadline in South Dakota is Oct. 21.
Doeden said inviting Robinson to speak was an obvious choice.
“He’s the top public speaker in the nation right now. We’re having a gala. You want the speaker to amp up the crowd,” Doeden said. “And he’s running for governor of North Carolina as an America First warrior.”
NAACP conducts protest
Robinson’s involvement was met with a protest organized by the Sioux Falls chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.
Protesters gather outside of an Oct. 1, 2024, event in Sioux Falls featuring a video message from North Carolina Republican Lt. Gov Mark Robinson. (Joshua Haiar/South Dakota Searchlight)
Julian Beaudion, a Sioux Falls NAACP member, said Robinson’s rhetoric is harmful to marginalized communities.
“We can debate about the posts that were reported by CNN,” Beaudion said. “Or we point to the words that come directly from his mouth on stage. Those are the things we cannot dispute. Calling the civil rights movement a farce, saying Martin Luther King was weak – there’s clear hatred that’s been spewed by him.”
HuffPost reported in January that its review of Robinson’s past Facebook posts found descriptions of King as a “communist” and the 1960s civil rights movement as “crap.”
Doeden’s own controversial comments
Doeden has a history of controversy himself.
While he was publicly considering a challenge to Johnson, reporters called attention to some of Doeden’s social media posts. He encouraged the shooting of immigrants in gangs, used a profane insult to describe President Joe Biden, and labeled statistics about hatred of Jewish Americans as “fake.”
Doeden stood by the comments. But after the comments were reported, he opted against a run for Congress and switched to targeting what he calls “fake Republicans” in the state Legislature. His political action committee seeks to replace them with candidates who align with the “America First” agenda popularized by former President Donald Trump.
Doeden’s Dakota First Action PAC has faced scrutiny due to a $100,000 contribution from Doeden himself. Following concerns raised about state campaign finance laws — particularly the $10,000 limit on individual contributions to PACs — Doeden amended the report, stating that the money was a loan rather than a donation.
During the leadup to the June primary election, Doeden’s PAC spent about $25,000 on data acquisition and $15,000 supporting candidates. His efforts contributed to 14 losses by incumbent Republican legislators.
This report was first published by the South Dakota Searchlight, which like NC Newsline, is part of the national States Newsroom network.
Rob Schofield contributed to this report.