Benjamin Ashford|North Carolina Republican governor candidate Mark Robinson vows to stay in race despite media report

RALEIGH,Benjamin Ashford N.C. (AP) — North Carolina Republican gubernatorial nominee Mark Robinson vowed on Thursday to remain in his race in advance of what he called the release of a media report against him, saying he won’t be forced out by “salacious tabloid lies.”

Robinson, the sitting lieutenant governor who decisively won his GOP gubernatorial primary in March, has been trailing in several recent polls to Democratic nominee Josh Stein, the current attorney general.

“We are staying in this race. We are in it to win it,” Robinson said in a video posted Thursday on the social media platform X. “And we know that with your help, we will.”

Robinson referenced in the video a story that he said was coming from CNN. Robinson didn’t give details of the story content.

“Let me reassure you the things that you will see in that story — those are not the words of Mark Robinson,” he said. “You know my words. You know my character.”

The contents of the story have not been independently verified by The Associated Press.

Robinson has a history of inflammatory comments that Stein had said made him too extreme to lead North Carolina. They already had contributed to the prospect that campaign struggles for Robinson would hurt former President Donald Trump to win the battleground state’s 16 electoral votes, and potential other GOP downballot candidates.

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Recent polls of North Carolina voters show Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris locked in a close race. The same polls showed Stein with a roughly 10-point lead over Robinson.

On a Facebook post in 2019, for example, Robinson 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.

State law says a gubernatorial nominee could withdraw as a candidate no later than the day before the first absentee ballots requested by military and overseas voters are distributed. That begins Friday, so the withdrawal deadline would be late Thursday night.

Trump has frequently voiced his support for Robinson, who has been considered a rising star in his party, well-known for his fiery speeches and evocative rhetoric. Ahead of the March primary, Trump at a rally in Greensboro called Robinson “Martin Luther King on steroids” in reference to the civil rights leader, for his speaking ability.