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Democrats have written off Republican Mark Robinson’s campaign to be the first Black governor of North Carolina. His Democratic opponent has a double-digit lead and, heaven knows, Robinson’s bombastic antics have given critics plenty of ammunition to use against him.

Still, a week can be an eternity in politics, and Robinson continues to poll at about 40 percent despite a disastrous month.

This means Robinson still has a chance to be elected, if only a Hail Mary attempt. He can ride to victory on the coattails of turnout for Donald Trump and a splinter of support from the Black faith community. The Black church features a segment of center-right leaning voters that will respond to proposals for doing good works — as the Apostle Paul wrote, “Let our people learn to devote themselves to good works, so as to help cases of urgent need.”

Does the Bible-thumping Robinson have the political maturity to make a silk purse from a sow’s ear?

His campaign is badly damaged from an onslaught of negative press reflecting his propensity for flippant, insensitive statements on gay rights, abortion, antisemitism, civil rights, Martin Luther King Jr. and slavery, among others. Added to this mess is CNN’s report, which Robinson disputes, about his comments on a pornographic website, plus other press allegations such as paying for an abortion, receiving food stamps, business failures and more.

Despite national press mockery, Robinson is a symbol of Black political achievement in Tar Heel State governance. Elected lieutenant governor in 2021, he is the first Black politician to hold that office, and only the second Black person ever elected statewide in North Carolina.

However, he has kept the predominantly Democratic Black community at arm’s length. Such an approach tends to be a prerequisite for Black politicians in the GOP establishment. Yet it is a self-defeating strategy if they are expected to reach folks.

After the fallout of the CNN report, Robinson lost campaign staff and advertising funding from the Republican Governors Association. Trump and other Republicans distanced themselves. But the churn may provide him with a new life to explore an independent political realignment in state politics.

Robinson still has a chance to eke out a win if he is open to a bipartisan agenda that seeks to bridge positive elements of the concerns of both MAGA supporters and the Black faith community. As an evangelist, he could take hints from the playbook of the Rev. William Barber, a longtime leader of the state NAACP, the Moral Mondays movement and the Poor People’s Campaign. Barber once suggested the idea of bipartisan cooperation on issues of good works as a way to find political common ground.

Robinson, acting in an independent fashion, would have a political stake in pursuing programs on child welfare, health care, education, stricter immigration enforcement in the construction trades for infrastructure projects and voting rights protections. He could counter the Republican state legislature’s penchant for electoral shenanigans to stifle the Black vote for partisan advantage.

Some Black faith voters may find appeal in Robinson’s working-class profile. Now a grandfather, he renders the life story of a blue-collar father struggling to care for his family at a time of competition from immigrants and outsourcing. He married his high school sweetheart and raised children on the salary of a furniture factory worker. He criticized the effects of Bill Clinton’s 1994 signing of NAFTA on his livelihood, writing, “My wife and I have endured a lot. I lost not one, but two jobs due to NAFTA. We lost homes, cars, and were even forced into bankruptcy.”