Senator Thom Tillis Endorses Attorney Bill Graham in N.C. GOP Gov Primary, Dealing Blow to Frontrunner Mark Robinson

The Republican primary race for North Carolina’s term-limited Democratic governor Roy Cooper’s seat took a turn this week when GOP Senator Thom Tillis endorsed wealthy attorney and businessman Bill Graham in the contest, dealing a blow to the frontrunner, Republican lieutenant governor Mark Robinson.

“I intend to do everything I can to help him get the nomination,” Tillis tells National Review of Graham. “It’s not a personality thing to me or personal thing. I’m looking at two resumes and there’s a stark contrast in capabilities.”

North Carolina’s gubernatorial race is shaping up to be one of the most expensive and competitive statewide contests of the 2024 cycle, and gives Republicans a new opportunity to win control of a governor’s mansion that has historically been held by Democrats. Tillis’s decision to back Graham — who ran unsuccessfully for governor in 2008 — is a knock against Republican gubernatorial frontrunner Mark Robinson, North Carolina’s first black lieutenant governor whose fire-and-brimstone campaign style and dicey personal financial history have raised general electability concerns among the more establishment wing of the North Carolina GOP.

Robinson, now in his first term, has come under fire in recent months for a history of controversial comments, including comparing gay people to “what the cows leave behind” and calling the Marvel Movie “Black Panther” a film created “by an agnostic Jew and put to film by satanic marxist” to “pull the shekels out of your Schvartze pockets.” 

Some Republicans have privately griped that if Robinson wins the Republican nomination in next year’s March primary, his controversial comments will deliver the general election to North Carolina’s attorney general and likely Democratic gubernatorial nominee Josh Stein, who is Jewish, even though polling suggests that a head-to-head match-up between Robinson and Stein is currently a tossup. Stein will face former state Supreme Court justice Mike Morgan in the Democratic primary.

Tillis maintained in an interview with NR this week that his support for Graham comes down to experience. But the pragmatic senator’s involvement in the primary is significant, given his strong ties to North Carolina’s business community and the fact that he is widely credited for helping GOP Representative Chuck Edwards oust controversial hard-right former representative Madison Cawthorn last cycle.

“Mark Robinson’s a good enough guy. I don’t know him that well,” says Tillis, who previously served as speaker of the North Carolina house of representatives. “But he has virtually no legislative experience, very little business experience. We’re a very, very important state and we have to have people with that kind of experience, I think, to continue this track record that we’ve had since Republicans took control of North Carolina when I became speaker. And so for those reasons, I’ve decided to support Bill.”

Graham, who has already pledged to spend millions in personal funds on his own campaign, has spent the past few weeks blanketing North Carolina’s with campaign ads focused on cutting taxes, strengthening K–12 education, and combating crime. And he notably spent this week mingling with high-profile Republicans at the Republican Governors Association conference in Las Vegas, NR has learned, an event that’s typically chock-full of GOP governors, donors, and lobbyists.

Graham’s political consultant Paul Shumaker tells NR that he attended the RGA conference “as a potential donor” and that his interest was “driven by his candidacy.”

“He reached out to them and asked how could he be supportive,” Shumaker added. “Graham has donated over a million dollars to GOP candidates and organizations over the years.” But even if Graham locked up new supporters at this week’s RGA event, overcoming Robinson’s frontrunner status won’t be easy. A new East Carolina University poll shows the lieutenant governor still has a strong lead over Republican primary opponents Graham, state treasurer Dale Folwell, and former ​​state senator Andy Wells.

What’s more, Robinson already has the support of North Carolina’s senate president pro tempore, Phil Berger, who is widely considered the most powerful Republican in North Carolina. And over the summer, former president Donald Trump said Robinson can “count on his support,” vowing to formally endorse him at a later date. Robinson is scheduled to fundraise alongside Trump — who won North Carolina in 2016 and 2020 — at the former president’s Palm Beach home on December 12, National Review first reported. 

“Mark Robinson is someone who comes across as an authentic person to working class voters,” says Jonathan Felts, an adviser to the pro-Robinson super PAC, Patriots First. “These are the people that decide Republican primaries.”