Donald Trump and the Republican Party are ditching Mark Robinson, their scandal-plagued nominee in the North Carolina governor’s race.
Robinson has been battling to keep his head above water after claims that he called himself a “Black Nazi” and made other offensive comments on a pornographic website.
But it appears the national GOP hierarchy are prepared to let him drown. The Republican Governors Association said in a statement that they are pulling Robinson’s financial support.
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“We don’t comment on internal strategy or investment decisions, but we can confirm what’s public—our current media buy in North Carolina expires tomorrow, and no further placements have been made,” said RGA communications director Courtney Alexander.
“RGA remains committed to electing Republican Governors all across the country,” he added, presumably except for North Carolina.
Up until Tuesday, according to CNN, the RGA and its PAC had spent nearly $16 million on the North Carolina governor’s race. As a tight race in a swing state, it had become one of the most expensive contests in the nation, but the RGA’s retreat will hamper Robinson’s ability to pay for ads down the home stretch.
With the battleground state crucial to the outcome of the presidential election—North Carolina has been staunchly Republican since Barack Obama last won there in 2008—the GOP is all too aware of the detrimental effect that bad publicity in the gubernatorial race could have on Trump’s chances.
Trump won the Tar Heels state by 75,000 votes in 2020 and it’s a must-win for 2024, but a New York Times/ Sienna College poll published on Monday suggested his lead over Harris had narrowed to 49 percent against 47 percent for Harris, making it a way closer race than he’d like.
In a tell-tale sign that the Trump-Vance campaign has cut North Carolina’s lieutenant governor adrift, both men visited the state in recent days without offering a word of support.
Trump once compared Robinson to Martin Luther King, but he didn’t mention him once at a rally in North Carolina on Saturday. Campaigning in Charlotte on Monday, JD Vance fended off questions about the scandal while making it clear that Robinson was on his own.
“I think it’s up to Mark Robinson to make his case to the people of North Carolina that those weren’t his statements, and I’m going to let him make that case,” he told reporters.
Georgia Governor Brian Kemp also distanced himself from Robinson with his spokesperson saying he will not be supporting the North Carolina gubernatorial nominee despite attending a fundraiser for him last month.
Closer to home, the exodus continued with senior members of his team, including the campaign manager, senior adviser, and political and fundraising heads all quitting.
The North Carolina Republican Party is sticking by their man, however, insisting that he has refuted the allegations.
Among the remarks Robinson allegedly made on a website over a decade ago was a message about how he would go “peeping” on women at a gym when he was a teenager.
Refusing to discuss the claims further, he attacked CNN, the network that first disclosed the comments, and said: “You folks want to focus on tabloid trash and quite frankly I am sick of it and every time I get in front of you, I’m going to cut you off, and tell you, you need to refocus yourself on the issues that matter to people.”
