By Daniel Trotta and Joseph Ax
(Reuters) -North Carolina’s Republican candidate for governor promised to stay in the race on Thursday after CNN reported that he once called himself a “black NAZI!” and proposed bringing back slavery in comments posted on a pornography website.
Mark Robinson, an African American who denied making the comments, is North Carolina’s lieutenant governor and running for governor in the Nov. 5 election against Democratic candidate Josh Stein, the state’s attorney general.
North Carolina’s gubernatorial campaign has implications for the presidential contest. The fortunes of high-profile candidates there could affect partisan turnout or enthusiasm in one of the closely divided battleground states that might swing the election between Democrat Kamala Harris and Republican Donald Trump.
Robinson, 56, who was endorsed by Trump, has a history of inflammatory comments and issued a video denial on social media even before the CNN story published.
“Let me reassure you the things that you will see in that story – those are not the words of Mark Robinson,” the candidate said, calling the CNN report “salacious tabloid lies.”
“We are staying in this race,” Robinson said.
In one October 2010 post on the pornography site, CNN said Robinson wrote: “Slavery is not bad. Some people need to be slaves. I wish they would bring it (slavery) back. I would certainly buy a few.”
CNN said Robinson also posted a series of “gratuitously sexual and lewd” posts dating from 2008 to 2012 before he entered politics, and that it was reporting only a small portion of them given their graphic nature. Many contradicted his public stances on issues such as abortion and transgender rights, CNN said.
Reuters was unable to immediately verify the posts. CNN did not immediately respond to a request for comment outside business hours.
The North Carolina Republican Party stood by Robinson, saying Democrats were resorting to a smear campaign because they were losing on policy.
“Mark Robinson has categorically denied the allegations made by CNN but that won’t stop the Left from trying to demonize him via personal attacks,” the party said in a statement.
At least one North Carolina Republican, U.S. Representative Richard Hudson (NYSE:), called CNN’s reporting “very concerning” and said he thought Robinson needed to do more to reassure voters the allegations were untrue.
Stein, his opponent, has featured some of Robinson’s previous controversial comments in television attack ads and his campaign issued a statement condemning him on Thursday.
“North Carolinians already know Mark Robinson is completely unfit to be governor. Josh remains focused on winning this campaign so that together we can build a safer, stronger North Carolina for everyone,” Stein’s campaign said.
Following the publication of CNN’s story, the Harris campaign posted video clips of Trump praising Robinson. The Trump campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Trump is holding a rally on Saturday in the state.
Under North Carolina law, the deadline for Robinson to withdraw from the race would be Thursday at 11:59 p.m., the day before the state begins sending absentee ballots to military and overseas voters. If he were to do so, the state Republican Party’s executive committee would select a replacement.
Absentee ballots with Robinson’s name on them have already been printed for all 100 counties, and some counties have already begun receiving printed ballots for early voting and Election Day, according to a spokesperson for the state elections board, Patrick Gannon.
If a candidate withdraws and it is determined impractical to reprint ballots, any votes for that candidate will instead go to the replacement candidate.