The controversial Republican candidate continues to fight in the race for governor of North Carolina

ELLERBE, N.C. (AP) — I spoke to more than 100 supporters outside an ice cream stand shaped like a giant strawberry, North…

ELLERBE, N.C. (AP) — Addressing more than 100 supporters outside an ice cream stand shaped like a giant strawberry, Republican Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson battered his Democratic rival for governor and the media, saying he would keep fighting as their race came to a close.

“I am on the battlefield for the people of this state,” he said in a speech on Wednesday.

In what was shaping up to be one of the tightest elections of the year, a candidate who won the support and lavish praise of former President Donald Trump continues to defend himself as Election Day approaches. He was severely battered by his Democratic opponent, state Attorney General Josh Stein, and is still trying to gauge the impact of a CNN report on offensive comments he allegedly made on an online porn site years before he ran for public office , to weaken.

Answering questions from reporters outside The Berry Patch in Ellerbe, 90 miles southwest of Raleigh, Robinson said he still believes he will win.

“People don’t care about salacious lies that supposedly happened fifteen years ago. They don’t care about Facebook posts from ten years ago,” Robinson said. “What they care about is how they’re going to feed their families, how they’re going to keep their businesses open, how they’re going to give their child a good education.”

North Carolina was projected early on as the governor’s race to watch this fall — a battleground state contest where statewide races are typically close and for a position that Democrats have won in four of the past 32 years. na, have taken.

In the final days of the campaign, the advantages appeared to favor another Democrat to succeed term-limited Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper.

Stein had a lead over Robinson in several polls of North Carolina voters taken since Labor Day. Campaign finance reports filed this week showed Stein’s campaign had generated huge returns, raising $44.6 million over a 3.5-month period ending in mid-October and spending $59.3 million in the same period. Robinson’s campaign committee, meanwhile, raised $4.1 million and spent nearly $10 million. During the election cycle, Stein has outraised Robinson by a nearly 4-to-1 margin.

Stein’s financial advantage and the support of allies helped them continually remind voters of Robinson’s blunt statements on the matter abortionwomen and LGBTQ+ people which they say should disqualify him from the job, while also promoting the attorney general’s achievements.

Robinson’s support took its biggest blow when CNN reported in September that Robinson had posted explicit racist and sexual messages on the message board of a pornographic website more than a decade ago. Robinson denied writing the messages, which The Associated Press did not independently confirm sued CNN for defamation in October.

The lawsuit is still ongoing, but the report had immediate consequences. Robinson’s top campaign staff resigned. The Republican Governors Association pulled the plug on television advertising for Robinson. His campaign has moved away from commercials and focused on social media and events in small towns and rural areas like Ellerbe, where Republican Party turnout is high.

Trump has not withdrawn his support for Robinson, a man he once described as “Martin Luther King on steroids,” but Robinson no longer appears at Trump rallies. Asked last week during a visit to Hurricane Helene recovery efforts in western North Carolina whether he would urge voters to continue supporting Robinson, Trump replied: “I’m not familiar with the standings at this time.” of business.”

Robinson said Wednesday that he had spoken with Trump since the CNN report aired and that “his message to me was to keep going, keep fighting and win this race.”

Stein, meanwhile, assumes nothing. He reminds supporters that he won re-election as attorney general in 2020 by fewer than 13,000 votes. He is encouraging efforts to get out the vote for him, Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris and the general election.

“We work hard, with our heads down. We are running fast across the finish line,” Stein told reporters after meeting with Democratic Party volunteers Tuesday in Smithfield, 30 miles (48 kilometers) southeast of Raleigh. “It’s about trying to talk to as many voters as possible about the clarity of the choice between our positive, hopeful, optimistic vision and (Robinson’s) divisive, angry and hateful vision.”

Robinson told his supporters Wednesday that Stein spent $50 million on ads simply to promote an “I don’t like Mark Robinson” platform. Robinson has said that if elected, he would expand budget and education policies adopted by fellow Republicans who control the General Assembly. Stein’s platform largely follows Cooper’s policy prescriptions for public schools and clean energy and against abortion restrictions and expansion of private school vouchers.

The catastrophic floods of Helene affected the campaign. As attorney general, Stein spoke at news conferences about recovery and met with President Joe Biden during his visit. Robinson criticized Cooper for the state’s initial response and worked with a sheriff to bring relief supplies to the mountains.

Robinson, who would become the state’s first black governor, still has support among conservatives — many of whom credit his working-class story and rise as an advocate for gun rights before becoming lieutenant governor. Stein would be the state’s first Jewish governor.

Some top Republican officials, including House Speaker Tim Moore and Senate Majority Leader Phil Berger, have not publicly cut ties with Robinson. A few statewide GOP candidates are still supporting him as well.

On The Berry Patch, retired school custodian Raymond Moore, 69, of Ellerbe, who has attended many Robinson events, called Robinson “a good man, a good solid man” and dismissed the allegations. “Everyone has a past,” Moore said. “I know what he is today.”

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Associated Press writer Amelia Thomson DeVeaux in Washington contributed to this report.