A coin toss made a Christian Nationalist mayor of Monroe, NC. It's been a disaster.

Robert Burns won a coin flip to become mayor—and he's turned a neutral office into a pulpit for his right-wing religion

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In November of 2023, Robert Burns and Bob Yanacsek were both running to become mayor of Monroe, North Carolina. Each man won exactly 970 votes, and instead of seeking a recount, both men agreed to have the race decided on a coin flip.

At Friday’s Union County elections board meeting, Yanacsek and Burns waived their right to seek a recount. State law says the outcomes of tied races are determined by lot.

At the coin toss, Yanacsek called heads but the coin flipped by an election official came up tails, leading to celebration from Burns’ supporters. The two men shook hands and hugged briefly. The board then voted to declare Burns the winner.

It’s the sort of thing that happens every now and then in local races, and that’s usually the end of the story until the next election. But in the two years since Burns has been elected, he’s done everything in his power to turn his office into a conduit for Christianity and Christian Nationalism. (This isn’t all that shocking, given that he ran as a conservative Christian and told his supporters just before the coin toss, “it’s all in God’s hands.”)

Considering that mayors don’t get to pass legislation, though, how has he done that?

Well, on his official mayoral YouTube page, he’s posted videos promoting “Monroe Prayer Night,” telling the audience, “Jesus alone is worthy, and that's why we're here today.”

Burns also “listed City Hall’s address and phone number as a National Day of Prayer contact,” something he had no business doing.

On his podcast last year, Burns interviewed Christian Nationalist Micah Beckwith shortly before he became Lieutenant Governor of Indiana. Beckwith said, with no opposition from Burns, that “the atheist, the Muslim, the Jew, the Mormon, the Christian… anyone will be better off if we root our society and Judeo-Christian principles… [because] liberty is not man's idea, it's God's idea.”

Beckwith then added—again, with no pushback from Burns—that the people fighting for church/state separation were “the LGBTQ community trying to support Hamas.”

Then there are the culture war battles.

Last June, for example, Burns issued a proclamation to celebrate the two-year anniversary of the overturning of Roe v. Wade, calling on all citizens to “support life-affirming initiatives.”

The city council later voted 5-2 to censure him for that, an action which Burns said he would wear as “a badge of honor.” The council also took away his power to issue future proclamations.

This past June, unable to repeat that move, Burns posted a message on Facebook effectively saying the same thing and falsely claiming women have abortions because “Abortion mills push women in crisis through the process, even when in tears, never telling them about post-abortion trauma.”

Last week, Burns urged pastors in Monroe to start endorsing candidates from the pulpit given that the IRS now says the Johnson Amendment will not be enforced. The post includes his mayoral title, suggesting that this is a message from the city.

He also uses city letterhead and his title of mayor to issue personal (often religious) thoughts on his pet issues, though there’s confusing fine print saying he’s only speaking in his personal capacity.

It’s why the city council, just last week, voted 5-2 on a “no confidence” measure against Burns. It’s their way of saying this guy has no ability to do the job he was elected won a coin toss to do.

All of this was done in his capacity as mayor, not as a private citizen.

His personal x/Twitter feed is nothing but a litany of right-wing conspiracy theories and grievances. He has called his critics “narcissistic Beta Males" and "snowflake complainers," acting more like a right-wing troll than a mayor with any actual responsibilities. While some elected officials recognize that they represent all of their constituents, not just the ones who voted for them, Burns is the sort of mayor who only gives a shit about other conservative Christians and treats everyone else in his town as the enemy.

(Speaking of beta males, Burns cowered in silence and refused to comment when a reporter asked him about his online shit-posting.)

But that’s not all! When a local diner began hosting an all-ages drag brunch show in the wake of anti-drag outrage, Burns was among the protesters falsely claiming the diner was “sexualizing our children here in Monroe, and people are waking up to that.” (He did that when he was campaigning to be mayor, but before he won the coin toss.) There were dueling lawsuits in the wake of that controversy. Since 2023, the restaurant in question has only allowed adults to attend the drag shows.

As mayor, however, Burns tried to get all drag shows classified as adult entertainment, even if they were obviously not, a move that could have led to additional First Amendment lawsuits. That proposal was thankfully shot down by the city council.

Burns was still talking about the drag shows over the weekend, when he sat for an interview with Christian Nationalist William Wolfe. The two men talked about Burns’ election “victory,” where Burns described how he believed he had a mandate from God because of how he came into office:

… And these news broadcasters would come to me and to Bob and say, "Hey, listen. You know what happens, it's a coin toss. Uh, what would you… what would you call if it was a coin toss?" And I'm like, "Man, I wouldn't… there's not going to be a coin toss, but, you know, I would call heads."

So that day, when we tied, they said we had to… write over, sign over, our… our right for a recount, okay, so we could get it done right then and there. And I agreed. And then the other guy, Bob, he agreed.

Um, and then I walk up to the middle. They said, "We don't have a provision for who calls it." And I literally was about to say, "Heads." And I went up to him and I said, "Hey, Bob, you call it." And then Bob calls heads.

And they flip the silver dollar. It hits a desk. It rolls to our side of the room. At the time prior to that, I'd given an individual that you and I know… my camera. And so she's recording it, too. So there's no election interference. We didn't touch it, nothing. It rolls around the room… but doesn't hit anything. Doesn't even hit the coffee cup that it lands beside. Flips over, it was tails.

It was God. It was God's ordination. I knew it immediately. That was a mandate from Him.

Somehow, God couldn’t be bothered to find Burns one more vote during the actual election. But the coin flip made Burns feel like he had earned a “mandate,” and he’s now acting like he won by a landslide.

During that podcast, Wolfe also claimed that members of the city council were “persecuting” Burns for his faith, apparently because they told him it was inappropriate to issue the anti-abortion proclamation.

Burns responded by bluntly saying, “I'm gonna use my platform for my conservative Christian beliefs.” It’s the sort of statement that would be condemned by Republicans at every level of government if another mayor cited any other religion.

Robert Burns at the Monroe Prayer Night (screenshot via YouTube)

Remember: All this is happening because, in a city of over 30,000 people, the vast majority didn’t give a damn enough about their mayoral election in 2023 and didn’t bother to vote (and didn’t bother voting for his main opponent), allowing this religious zealot to end up with the victory and use it as his personal pulpit to spread Trumpism and Christianity. It’s telling that a recent “Latin Fest” in the city had low attendance because Monroe is seen as unsafe for immigrants—and Trump-worshiping men like Burns are their public face.

Burns is presumably running for re-election in 2026. If the people in the town want a mayor who prioritizes the entire city instead of his or her personal religious beliefs, they should vote for damn near anyone else.

(via Right Wing Watch)

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