North Carolina Republicans are grappling with the fallout from a major investigative report detailing their gubernatorial nominee’s alleged online history and how it might affect voters’ perception of their party’s ticket collectively now that their candidate is locked in for the election.
Mark Robinson, the gubernatorial candidate, announced his decision to stay in the race, plowing through the legal deadline to drop out. North Carolina ballots started going out on Friday after an unrelated delay. Since Robinson will continue on as their controversial pick, Democrats see a new path to sink Republicans in the battleground.
CNN reported that Robinson allegedly posted content that included sexually explicit and racist comments years ago on a porn site, and Robinson denied the allegations. Meanwhile, North Carolina Republicans are playing it cool.
“Voters are smart enough to separate one candidate from another,” National Republican Congressional Committee Chair Richard Hudson, who represents a district in the state and who called the allegations “concerning,” told NOTUS on Friday. “As other races have gone up or down, we haven’t seen any impact on our congressional polling. … That’s the way voters have always behaved.”
North Carolina has one of the most competitive gubernatorial races in the country, and it’s key in the presidential race too.
“People can weigh out alleged facts and make their decisions based off every candidate’s skills and capabilities,” Rep. Chuck Edwards, also of North Carolina, said. “To suggest that voters would allow this to influence their decision on other candidates is an insult. That’s the American way. That’s how democracy works.”
Edwards suggested that the whole story could be made up despite the fact that the detailed CNN report laid out multiple ways of linking Robinson to the online profile that posted the comments.
“I leave room for the possibility that there could have been some mischievous activity out there,” Edwards added. “The statements that I’ve seen reported would not come from the Mark Robinson that I know.”
GOP nominee for attorney general Dan Bishop, who is currently a member of Congress, declined to answer questions about Robinson’s impact on himself and other candidates, telling reporters on Friday that he would “address it when I am ready to.”
Democrats, meanwhile, are talking about Mark Robinson as much as they can.
Kamala Harris’ campaign dropped an ad across North Carolina markets connecting Trump to Robinson on Friday. Democrats also launched a paid weekend billboard campaign “blanketing the cities of Raleigh, Charlotte and Greensboro” with the same goal.
The billboards, which will also be up in Wilmington in time for Trump’s rally there on Saturday, are meant to remind North Carolina voters that Trump has repeatedly praised and embraced Robinson as a candidate by vouching for his character and fundraising for him.
“It’s no secret that Donald Trump and Mark Robinson are tied to the hip,” Abhi Rahman, a spokesperson at the Democratic National Committee, told NOTUS. “Our thinking was basically that it’s time to remind North Carolina that there would be no Robinson winning the gubernatorial campaign without Donald Trump.”
Democrats hope Robinson will be a help to them outside just the presidential race.
“Mark Robinson is a symptom of how extreme North Carolina Republicans have gotten,” Rahman said. “He is not alone. The rhetoric and actions of the candidates aren’t that different so this is something that’s going to affect all of them.”
The Republican National Committee and the North Carolina Republican Party did not respond to requests for comment.
Democrats in the state Legislature were also keeping a close eye on how Republicans responded. Sam Lozier, the North Carolina House Democratic caucus’ communications director, told NOTUS that after the news broke, it was “clear these folks are concerned.”
“We saw candidates scrubbing photos of [themselves] with Mark Robinson on social media,” Lozier said.
North Carolina House Democrats’ campaign arm plans to send out digital and mail flyers to voters that tie their opponents to Robinson and his agenda. In examples shared with NOTUS, Democrats highlight abortion as an issue.
On Thursday, the state Republican Party insisted that the GOP would see victories in November despite “the Left trying to demonize [Mark Robinson] via personal attacks.”
“Robinson has categorically denied the allegations made by CNN,” the party’s statement said. “The Left can try to smear Mark Robinson all they want, but when voters go to the polls on Election Day, they are going to be asking one simple question: Are you better off now than you were four years ago?”
The Trump campaign, which did not respond to a request for comment, avoided directly addressing the allegations and their potential impact on Thursday.
“President Trump’s campaign is focused on winning the White House and saving this country,” a Trump campaign spokesperson told CNN. “North Carolina is a vital part of that plan. We are confident that as voters compare the Trump record of a strong economy, low inflation, a secure border, and safe streets, with the failures of Biden-Harris, then President Trump will win the Tarheel State once again.”
In the coming weeks, North Carolina Democrats say, Republicans up and down the ballot shouldn’t be able to skirt around where they stand on Robinson as a candidate.
“It’s very fair to tie support for Robinson to every single person,” Democratic Rep. Wiley Nickel told NOTUS. “If Republicans had any integrity, they would not stand with him anymore, but as you can see, they’re doubling down instead.”
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Calen Razor is a NOTUS reporter and an Allbritton Journalism Institute fellow.