CNN —
Mark Robinson, the scandal-plagued Republican candidate in the North Carolina gubernatorial race, is weathering fallout from a CNN report about his inflammatory comments on a pornography site, and national Republican groups are withdrawing their funding for him.
The Republican Governors Association acknowledged in a statement Monday that “no further placements will be made” after current media buys expire on Tuesday.
“While we don’t comment on internal strategy or investment decisions, we can confirm the publicly-available facts: Our current media buy in North Carolina expires tomorrow and no further advertising will be placed. RGA remains committed to electing Republican governors across the country,” Courtney Alexander, RGA’s director of communications, said in a statement.
The decision came after former President Donald Trump failed to mention Robinson even once at a campaign rally in the Tar Heel State over the weekend, illustrating how quickly Trump is distancing himself from a man he once likened to the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.
Trump’s running mate, Sen. J.D. Vance of Ohio, campaigned in Charlotte on Monday, signaling that Republicans cannot ignore the state, which is crucial to Trump’s bid for the 270 electoral votes, despite the state’s gubernatorial candidate being embroiled in controversy.
During the campaign, Vance refused to say whether the Trump campaign still supported Robinson, saying it was Robinson’s job to make his case to voters.
“I think it’s up to Mark Robinson to make the case to the people of North Carolina that that’s not what he said, and I will allow him to make that case,” Vance said.
Robinson also returned to the campaign on Monday, a day after the campaign confirmed that several senior officials had resigned, including its campaign manager, top consultants and the heads of its fundraising and political teams.
Their resignations came after CNN reported on incendiary comments made by Robinson, North Carolina’s lieutenant governor, on a pornography message board more than a decade ago, in which he described himself as a “black Nazi” and said he had “peeped” on women at a public gym when he was 14.
Speaking to reporters outside a campaign event in Boone, Robinson did not directly answer questions about the coverage, saying, “We’re not going to fight here, because that’s what CNN wants us to do.”
“You guys want to focus on the tabloid nonsense and frankly I’m sick of it. Every time I stand in front of you, I’m going to interrupt you and tell you that you need to refocus on the issues that matter to people,” he said.
But the lieutenant governor’s support was dealt a further blow when Georgia Governor Brian Kemp withdrew his endorsement of Robinson.
After The Atlanta Journal-Constitution obtained photos of Kemp attending a Robinson fundraiser last month, spokesman Cody Hall told CNN, “The governor was attending the fundraiser in his role as vice chairman of the Republican Governors Association and will not be providing any further support to the Robinson campaign.”
But some North Carolina Republicans are supporting the lieutenant governor. North Carolina Sen. Ted Budd told CNN on Monday that he still plans to vote for Robinson for governor, but said the allegations are “deeply disturbing.”
“I’m always going to vote Republican because we have the best policies,” he said.
The North Carolina Republican Party also endorsed Robinson, and issued a statement Thursday noting that he denied making those comments.
But North Carolina senators have not said whether they will vote for Robinson in November’s election. Sen. Thom Tillis said instead he is committed to helping Trump win the state and supporting lesser candidates.
While Tillis said he doesn’t expect Robinson’s scandal to hurt Trump’s campaign in the state, he is waiting for Robinson to “make a statement one way or another” and “if it’s true, he needs to move on.”
A New York Times/Siena College poll conducted primarily before the CNN report was published found Robinson trailing his Democratic opponent, Attorney General Josh Stein, by 10 percentage points, suggesting the bombastic lieutenant governor is already facing an uphill battle to win the governor’s office.
That would likely be even more difficult without air support from the Republican National Committee.
Robinson’s campaign has been running ads on Google and Facebook for months, but they were suspended over the weekend. CNN has reached out to a Robinson campaign spokesperson but has not yet heard back.
Through Tuesday, the RGA and its affiliated PACs had spent a combined total of about $16 million on the North Carolina gubernatorial race, one of the most closely contested this governor’s race. The spending by the Republican National Committee continued into this week, bringing the group as a whole to more than $1 million in ad spending every week since July.
Outside spending by these Republican groups, plus spending by an array of Democratic outside groups, has made this race the most expensive for governor this year. From the March 5 primary through today, the parties, including campaigns and outside groups, have collectively spent about $87 million on the race, with Democrats outspending Republicans by about $57.9 million and Republicans outspending by about $28.7 million.
With the national Republican Party out of the race, that gap is likely to widen in the final weeks of the campaign. Democrats have reserved $12.5 million worth of ad inventory between Wednesday and Election Day, while Republicans have not yet booked any future inventory. Robinson’s campaign has spent $10.6 million on advertising since the primary, but as of today has no future ad buys.
This story has been updated with additional reports.
CNN’s Kaitlan Collins, Morgan Rimmer, Ted Barrett, Manu Raju, Diane Gallagher and Kit Marr contributed to this report.
