Mark Robinson (American politician)

Mark Robinson
Robinson in 2022
35th Lieutenant Governor of North Carolina
Incumbent
Assumed office January 9, 2021
Governor	Roy Cooper
Preceded by	Dan Forest
Personal details
Born	Mark Keith Robinson (1968-08-18) August 18, 1968 (age 56) Greensboro, North Carolina, U.S.
Political party	Republican
Spouse	Yolanda Dechelle Hill ​ ​ (m. 1990)​
Children	2
Education	University of North Carolina at Greensboro (BA)
Signature
Website	Official website
Military service
Branch/service	United States Army
Unit	Army Reserve

Mark Keith Robinson (born August 18, 1968) is an American politician serving as the 35th lieutenant governor of North Carolina since 2021. A member of the Republican Party, he was the party's nominee in the 2024 North Carolina gubernatorial election. He is North Carolina's first Black lieutenant governor and was the first Black major party nominee for governor.

Born in Greensboro, Robinson worked in furniture manufacturing for several years before entering politics. He came to prominence in 2018 when a video of him defending gun rights at a Greensboro City Council meeting in the wake of the Stoneman Douglas High School shooting went viral. Robinson launched his first political campaign in the 2020 North Carolina lieutenant gubernatorial election and defeated Democratic state representative Yvonne Lewis Holley. Near the end of his first term, Robinson won the Republican nomination for governor. He lost to Democratic state attorney general Josh Stein in the 2024 general election by 14.8%.^[1]

Robinson has a history of making incendiary and controversial statements, including about abortion, the LGBTQ community, women's rights, civil rights, and antisemitism. During his gubernatorial campaign, he was linked to extremist comments on an online pornography forum. Robinson denied posting the comments and dismissed calls to drop out of the race.^[2]