NC candidates cancel campaign events to focus on helping communities hit by Helene

The devastation from Helene in western North Carolina has put statewide election campaigns on hold, as candidates pivot to help with relief efforts.

The two candidates for governor initially continued with campaign events over the weekend in areas unscathed by the storm. But on Saturday night, Republican Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson announced that he was canceling events this week and would instead “travel privately with local leaders and officials to assist in recovery efforts.”

Attorney General Josh Stein held a Sunday event in Greensboro with Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, but has since canceled other events for this week. Stein’s campaign has also suspended fundraising emails and text messages, and he's not scheduled to return to the campaign trail until Saturday at the earliest. Robinson's schedule initially didn't list campaign events until Friday, but he's now scheduled to hold a town hall event in Monroe Wednesday night.

Stein delivered water and other supplies to a Red Cross donation site in Iredell County on Monday, and on Tuesday he joined Gov. Roy Cooper at a news conference and on a visit to the disaster area. As is typical for the attorney general, Stein has been focused on addressing price gouging issues, such as hotels raising their rates to take advantage of storm victims.

“Unfortunately there are some bad actors who are out there trying to take advantage of this crisis to make an extra buck off of people’s desperation,” Stein said Tuesday.

The lieutenant governor usually has little role in disaster recovery, but Robinson has been working with the sheriff of Franklin County on an effort to collect donated supplies in the Triangle and deliver them to affected communities.

“The people of western North Carolina are in desperate need of resources — including food and water,” he said in a news release. “My office is working to mobilize assets and assistance immediately.”

The storm has allowed Robinson’s embattled campaign an opportunity to change the subject from the CNN report about his pro-slavery and Nazi comments on a pornographic website. He’s posted a series of photos and videos on social media from various locations in western North Carolina.

In one video, he stands on a collapsed section of highway flanked by state troopers, saying that “we have a plan” to address washed-out roads — a responsibility of the N.C. Department of Transportation, which is part of the governor’s administration.

Robinson’s new campaign manager — hired to replace his longtime aides who quit following the CNN scandal — posted on X, formerly called Twitter, praising the lieutenant governor’s pivot.

“It’s 3:30AM. He is still hard at work, not on an election, but for the people,” campaign manager Matt Hurley wrote. “What he has mobilized in the last 72 hours is nothing short of miraculous. The media will never cover it. Few politicians, even members of his own party, will ever give him credit for any of it. He doesn’t care.”

Hurley wrote that he “came to North Carolina to help salvage a Republican ticket in freefall,” but that “Mark didn’t need saving; he is a fighter.”

But some of Robinson’s comments about the disaster response have faced criticism. On Tuesday, he shared a post from Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis about that state's road crews coming to help North Carolina. Robinson’s comment that “Florida is going to rebuild the roads in North Carolina” drew a quick rebuke from the State Employees Association of North Carolina, which has endorsed Stein.

“No sir, @NCDOT is going to rebuild the roads in N.C. like they do every time we have a disaster,” SEANC executive director Ardis Watkins wrote. “They have been busting butt for days. Our folks at DOT will appreciate the help from neighbors but how dare you want to lead them as a cabinet agency and say something like this!”

Both Robinson and former President Donald Trump have voiced some criticism of the disaster response, but they haven’t offered specifics about where the government’s efforts have fallen short.

“North Carolina must follow the lead of successful governors like @GovRonDeSantis,” Robinson wrote on X. “Cut the red tape. Stop waiting on federal resources and allow private industry in to assist with rescue and recovery efforts, and repair infrastructure immediately.”

Despite Robinson's criticism of the disaster response, WRAL reported that he was the only member of the Council of State who didn't reply to a request to sign the state's emergency declaration last week. He was also absent from a virtual meeting of the Council of State held Tuesday and led by the governor from the Emergency Operations Center. In his role as attorney general, Stein signed the declaration and attended the meeting.

Robinson posted a statement defending his approach later Wednesday, saying that Democrats "want to hide behind bureaucratic resolutions that pass automatically – instead of getting out there and working to help people in dire need." Robinson's lack of response was ultimately counted as a "yes" vote under the Council of State's concurrence procedures.

Trump posted on his Truth Social website Monday that he doesn’t “like the reports that I’m getting about the Federal Government, and the Democrat Governor of the State, going out of their way to not help people in Republican areas,” although he provided no proof for that claim. Most of western North Carolina is solidly Republican, with the exception of left-leaning Asheville.

It’s common during election season natural disasters for candidates to criticize the party leading government relief efforts, a move aimed at voters who may be frustrated by the speed of recovery.

And despite calls for political unity, North Carolina elected officials from each party held their own events Tuesday. As Cooper and Stein visited McDowell County and Black Mountain, Republican Agriculture Commissioner Steve Troxler held a news conference in Asheville with GOP members of Congress from across the state. Robinson, who’s had fellow Republicans distancing themselves from him since the CNN report, was not included in either event.

In addition to Robinson and Stein, other candidates are shifting their plans to focus on the hurricane recovery. Lieutenant governor candidate Hal Weatherman posted a video of himself in Boone volunteering with the charity Samaritan’s Purse. Others have used their platforms to share information about the recovery effort.