Lieutenant Governor Mark Robinson has hemorrhaged support from Republicans in North Carolina amid a scandal involving the emergence of alleged controversial past comments, a new poll shows.
The poll by East Carolina University shows that the embattled gubernatorial candidate’s support among North Carolina Republicans has dropped 20 percentage points.
The latest poll shows Robinson has the support of 63 percent of Republican respondents, compared to the last poll which showed he had 83 percent support.
Robinson is now trailing behind his opponent, Democrat Josh Stein, 50 percent to 33 percent, according to the poll.
The last poll showed Stein much more narrowly ahead, at 47 percent to Robinson’s 41 percent.
The poll was conducted between September 23 to 26, surveying 1,005 registered voters. The poll’s margin of error is +/- 3 percent.
Robinson has faced widespread criticism after a CNN report alleged that he had once made controversial comments on the message board of an adult website more than a decade ago.
These messages allegedly included describing himself as a “Black NAZI,” talking about “peeping” on women in public gym showers, defending slavery, and describing himself as a “perv” for enjoying transgender porn.
Newsweek reached out to Robinson’s campaign for comment via email outside of regular working hours.
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Robinson has repeatedly denied making the comments, calling them “salacious tabloid lies.”
However, the scandal has led to several of his key campaign staff resigning and has sparked criticism from within his own party.
Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump previously endorsed Robinson for governor in March ahead of North Carolina’s primary election and described him as “Martin Luther King on steroids.”
However, the former president has since appeared to distance himself from Robinson, not mentioning him at a recent rally in Wilmington and telling a reporter last week: “I don’t know the situation.”
It is too late for Robinson to leave the race as the deadline for him to be replaced on the ballot has passed.
Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris are currently neck-and-neck in the swing state of North Carolina, and it is unclear whether the controversies surrounding Robinson will negatively affect Trump.
Experts previously told Newsweek that they generally don’t think the issue will rub off on Trump, who narrowly won the state in the last two presidential elections.
The same poll by East Carolina University shows Trump ahead of Harris by two percentage points, 49 percent to 47 percent, which is within the poll’s margin of error.
