If elected, GOP governor candidate Mark Robinson intends to overhaul the North Carolina state government

North Carolina governor candidate Mark Robinson plans to “bring change” to the state’s government if he is elected this November, laying out his plans in a wide-ranging speech this weekend.

The Republican lieutenant governor keyed in on education as he spoke at the North Carolina Republican Party Convention in Greensboro, slamming school officials “who think they know more than you, know your children better than you, who believe it’s okay to feed your children a steady diet of communism and pornography,” per state outlet WRAL. He also shared how he believes the Tar Heel State’s economy is ready to “explode.”

“North Carolina is literally on the cusp of exploding economically,” Robinson said. “It’s time for us to direct that explosion in the right way and cause this state to be something better than it already is.”

Robinson has explored similar themes to national Republicans in his bid to win in November, focusing on parental rights, the economy, and environmental regulations. But he also outlined how he intends to appoint people “who will hold sway” over the operations of state government.

“… That’s what we intend to bring, to the office of the governor,” he said. “We intend to bring change.”

Robinson and Democratic Attorney General Josh Stein are running to replace Gov. Roy Cooper (D-NC), who is term-limited and cannot run for reelection. The election is expected to be close, as is the state’s status for the presidential election, with Democrats working hard to get President Joe Biden elected and flip the state blue.

Former President Donald Trump has endorsed Robinson, calling him in March “Martin Luther King on steroids.” During his speech on Saturday, Robinson defended Trump against what he saw as a media more focused on the trials Trump is up against than the “failures of the Democratic Party.”

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At the convention on Friday, Trump’s son, Eric Trump, and daughter-in-law, Lara Trump, co-chairwoman of the Republican National Committee, gave speeches celebrating changes to the Republican Party as a whole.

Robinson has been extremely controversial during his tenure as lieutenant governor for comments disparaging the LGBT community, using antisemitic tropes, and making remarks seen as misogynistic.