North Carolina gubernatorial hopeful Mark Robinson has been hit with another blow after a group dedicated to electing Republican governors announced it will not be paying for further ad placements in the state.
The Republican Governors Association recently issued an attack ad against Robinson’s Democratic rival Josh Stein on September 17. The RGA said that the current ad buy in North Carolina will expire Tuesday, and it has no plans to renew with just weeks left in the campaign.
“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 [Tuesday], and no further placements have been made,” Courtney Alexander, RGA communications director, said in a statement. “RGA remains committed to electing Republican Governors all across the country.”
Robinson continues to receive backlash following the recent publication of a bombshell CNN report detailing alleged comments the Republican left on a pornographic website’s message board more than a decade ago.
This includes allegedly describing himself as a “Black Nazi,” expressing support for Adolf Hitler, and saying he would like slavery to make a return, adding: “I would certainly buy a few.” Robinson has denied the allegations as “salacious tabloid trash” and vowed to stay in the race for North Carolina governor. Newsweek has contacted Robinson’s office for comment via email.
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The RGA and the RGA Right Direction PAC has previously spent $15.9 million on ad buys for North Carolina’s gubernatorial general election, according to tracking firm AdImpact.
The outcry over the CNN report is the latest controversy to have hit Robinson’s campaign.
The lieutenant governor has been criticized for his previous comments where he is accused of Holocaust denial and of pushing antisemitic tropes, and referring to gay and transgender people as “filth.”
On Sunday, scores of Robinson’s campaign team left their roles following the CNN message-board scandal. The campaign has reportedly been reduced to around three staffers, but Robinson said he would be announcing new hires soon.
Both Donald Trump and his running mate, JD Vance, are also seemingly attempting to distance themselves from Robinson.
Trump, who previously endorsed Robinson in the race and described him as like “Martin Luther King on steroids,” has not come out to publicly defend Robinson following the latest controversy.
Robinson also did not join the former president’s rally in Wilmington, North Carolina, on Saturday, nor appear with Vance during his campaign trip to the state on Monday.
Vance refused to say while in Charlotte whether the Trump campaign still endorsed Robinson, and added that it is Robinson’s job to make his case to voters.
“I’ve seen some of the statements; I haven’t seen them all. Some of them are pretty gross, to put it mildly,” Vance said.
“Mark Robinson says that those statements are false, that he didn’t actually speak them,” Vance added. “So, 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.”
On Monday, a New York Times/Siena College survey of 682 registered voters, which was mostly conducted before the CNN report was released, showed Robinson trailing Stein by 10 points [47 percent to 37].
An Emerson College poll released September 19 showed Stein with an 8-point lead [48 percent to 40].
