Controversial North Carolina candidate for governor rattles Republicans in critical swing state

The political world is still reeling from a CNN report that the Republican candidate for North Carolina governor, the current Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson, posted racist and explicit messages on a pornography web site message board more than a decade ago.

While The Associated Press hasn't confirmed the contents of the report and Robinson denied it, the piece sparked a last-minute push by some Republicans to convince Robinson to withdraw from the governor's race in the crucial swing state.

Robinson refused to step aside, standing pat as the latest of a long line of populist, outside-the-box Republican candidates to rise in the shadow of former President Donald Trump. He's attracted so much attention not only because his story is fascinating but because it could impact Trump's hopes of returning to the White House in November.

A former furniture factory worker, Robinson's political career took off when he attended a Greensboro City Council meeting in 2018 and spoke out against the council's plans to cancel a gun show in the wake of a school shooting in Florida. Robinson's fiery defense of gun rights — “I'm going to come down here to this city council and raise hell just like these loonies from the left do until you listen to the majority of the people in this city," he said — went viral.

Robinson left his furniture job and took up public speaking, addressing the National Rifle Association and other conservative groups. He ran for Lieutenant Governor in 2020 as a Republican, winning a statewide post that many politicians spend decades preparing for in his first campaign. Robinson swiftly began positioning himself to be the first major party Black candidate for governor in 2024, when Democrat Roy Cooper would be term-limited out of office.

Robinson also quickly became notorious for stoking conservative culture wars, taking an especially hardline stance on sex and gender politics. In a 2019 Facebook post Robinson, who admitted paying for his then-girlfriend to have an abortion in the 1980s, said abortion in America was about “killing the child because you weren’t responsible enough to keep your skirt down.” In a 2021 speech in a church, he used the word “filth” when discussing gay and transgender people.

Robinson's provocative language led some Republicans to worry he stood little chance of winning a general election campaign in North Carolina, which has a history of rejecting hardline conservative statewide gubernatorial candidates in favor of moderate Democrats. Most Republican voters didn't share that concern, nominating Robinson earlier this year over two rivals who were widely seen as more electable. Robinson had extra help with a primary endorsement from Trump, who compared Robinson to Martin Luther King, Jr.

The campaign hasn't gone the way Robinson supporters had hoped. Many thought a plainspoken Black man articulating conservative positions could win a right-leaning state where Democrats have long relied on African-American votes to win. Instead, Robinson has consistently trailed in polls behind the Democratic nominee for governor, Josh Stein. Stein contends Robinson's rhetoric and hardline positions make him unfit to lead the state.

Republican anxiety escalated earlier this week, when rumors of a blockbuster CNN report began circulating. Even before the report aired on Thursday, there were calls for Robinson to step aside ahead of the midnight deadline so a new GOP nominee could step in. Robinson refused, preemptively releasing a video where he said: “Let me reassure you the things that you will see in that story — those are not the words of Mark Robinson.”

The CNN report unearthed posts it said Robinson left on a porn site's message boards more than a decade ago in which he referred to himself as a “black NAZI,” said in 2012 he preferred Hitler to then-President Barack Obama, slammed civil rights icon King as “worse than a maggot,” and said he enjoyed transgender pornography.

CNN said it linked the posts to Robinson by tracing the email connected to the posts to the candidate as well as noting phrases Robinson still uses and references to his personal life, family history and marriage in the writings.

That left many North Carolina Republicans aghast, but midnight ticked by and Robinson remained the nominee. Ballots were mailed out to overseas voters and service members, marking the official start of voting and a point of no return.

A state's governor's race usually doesn't effect which presidential candidate wins the contest for its electoral votes. North Carolina, in particular, has shown its voters to be comfortable with divided government. But Democrats hope — and some Republicans fear — that Robinson's unique situation might make things different there this year.

Trump won the state by less than 1 percentage point in 2020 and Vice President Kamala Harris has her eye on its 16 electoral votes. Even before this week's CNN report Democrats were encouraged by Robinson's struggles there. Now they're piling on — the Harris campaign on Friday launched an ad featuring Trump praising Robinson, and the Democratic National Committee bought billboards tying the two candidates together.

In a sign that Republicans are nervous, Robinson will no longer appear with Trump when he visits the state on Saturday. But the delicate dance could prove complicated down the stretch of the campaign in a crucial swing state that Trump expects to visit frequently.

Still, there remains the possibility that Robinson's troubles won't affect Trump much at all other than to make his travel schedule complicated.

“I don’t think it’s going to have an impact,” Rep. Richard Hudson, a North Carolina Republican, told reporters on Friday. “I think voters are smart enough to differentiate one race from another.”