WILKESBORO, N.C. (AP) — Republican candidate for North Carolina governor Mark Robinson vowed Monday to rebuild his campaign team after several top advisers resigned and a key Republican group withdrew from his race following a CNN report alleging that he had made explicit racist and sexual posts on a pornography website message board years ago.
Robinson, the incumbent lieutenant governor, revealed Sunday that his campaign’s senior adviser, campaign manager and two other top aides had resigned. The senior adviser said separately that four other top aides had also resigned.
And the Republican Governors Association — expected to air ads boosting Robinson’s fall bid and criticizing Democratic rival Josh Stein — sounded ready to move on to other races. Recent polls have shown Stein, the current attorney general, ahead of Robinson. Stein has also outspent Robinson on the radio.
“We don’t comment on internal strategy or investment decisions, but we can confirm what is public — our current media buy in North Carolina expires tomorrow and no further placements have been made,” association spokeswoman Courtney Alexander said Monday. “RGA remains committed to electing Republican governors across the country.”
Robinson, who would be North Carolina’s first black governor if elected, denies writing the messages, which were made more than a decade ago, long before he entered politics. He calls them “supra-rational tabloid lies.” Other Republican leaders suggest that Robinson, with a long history of inflammatory remarks, must mount a credible defense or his bid for governor will be doomed.
Robinson said after a campaign rally Monday morning in the mountains of northwestern North Carolina that his campaign team is getting “offers from all over the world” to work for them.
“We’re in the process of building a team that we know can still lead us to victory,” Robinson said at a bakery in Wilkesboro, about 80 miles (129 kilometers) north of Charlotte. “So we’re confident that we can continue to do that.”
Last week’s CNN report exposed posts Robinson made on a porn site’s message boards in which he called himself a “black Nazi”; said he liked transgender porn; preferred Hitler over then-President Barack Obama in 2012; and criticized the late Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. as “worse than a maggot.”
Robinson also finds himself separated from Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, who endorsed Robinson for governor before the March primary and gave him the platform to speak at his rallies in the state. Robinson was not involved in Trump’s Saturday rally in Wilmington, and Trump did not mention him. Trump has another event planned for Wednesday in North Carolina in the Charlotte suburb.
Speaking to reporters in Wilkesboro, Robinson said his campaign is considering holding CNN “accountable for what they’ve done to us … you have to understand I’m going to go after CNN full force.” CNN did not comment Monday.
Last week, CNN said it had compared details of an account on the pornographic website forum with other online accounts owned by Robinson, comparing usernames, a known email address and his full name. CNN reported that details discussed by the account holder matched Robinson’s age, length of marriage and other biographical information.
In a speech to supporters at Vernon’s Cake Carousel, Robinson tried to focus on campaign issues like the economy, emphasizing public safety, public education, health care, infrastructure and housing. He briefly referenced his working-class background, saying he knows what it’s like to lose your job because work is being moved to Mexico.
Robinson was elected lieutenant governor in 2020, his first public office. He tells a life story that includes childhood poverty, personal bankruptcy and religious renewal.
He is seen as a rising star in the party and is known for his fiery speeches and suggestive rhetoric. Trump has previously called Robinson “Martin Luther King on steroids” because of his speaking skills.
Stein and his allies have bombarded TV and the Internet with ads and footage of Robinson making inflammatory remarks. In a 2021 speech at a church, Robinson used the word “filth” when referring to gay and transgender people. In a 2019 Facebook post, Robinson said that abortion in America is “about killing the child because you weren’t responsible enough to keep your skirt down or your pants up — and not getting pregnant by choice because you felt like doing your groove thing.”
