Several members of Mark Robinson's campaign team resign as fallout from online posts continues

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Several top members of North Carolina Republican Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson’s campaign have resigned from their positions, in a new fallout from a CNN report that exposed evidence that he posted disturbing messages on a pornography website forum more than a decade ago.

The campaign said in a press release Sunday that senior adviser Conrad Pogorzelski III, campaign manager Chris Rodriguez, the campaign’s chief financial officer and deputy campaign manager “have resigned from their positions with the campaign.” Information on the new campaign staff members will be available soon, the statement said.

“I appreciate the efforts of those team members who made the difficult choice to withdraw from the campaign, and I wish them well in their future endeavors,” Robinson said in the statement.

Pogorzelski, who helped Robinson get elected lieutenant governor in 2020 during his first run for public office and later became his chief of staff, said separately Sunday that additional staffers had also left the campaign — the deputy finance director, two political directors and the operations director.

Pogorzelski said in a text that he “left on his own, along with other members of the campaign.”

The CNN report released Thursday revealed old messages Robinson posted on a porn site’s forums in which he described himself as a “black NAZI,” said he liked transgender pornography, said in 2012 that he preferred Hitler to then-President Barack Obama, and called the late Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. “worse than a maggot.”

Robinson has denied writing the messages and said Thursday that he would not be coerced into dropping out of the race by “salacious tabloid lies.” He avoided discussing the controversy directly at a gubernatorial campaign event Saturday night at a racetrack in Fayetteville. The event came after former President Donald Trump failed to mention Robinson earlier in the day at a rally about 90 miles (145 kilometers) away in Wilmington.

Before Saturday, Robinson was a frequent presence at Trump’s campaign stops in North Carolina. The Republican presidential nominee has long praised Robinson — who would be North Carolina’s first black governor if elected — calling him “Martin Luther King on steroids” for his speaking style.

Robinson continued to express optimism Sunday about his victory in November against Democratic challenger Josh Stein, the incumbent attorney general. Polls have shown Robinson trailing Stein.

But Robinson said polls have “underestimated Republican support in North Carolina for multiple cycles” and that with much of the electorate undecided, “I am confident our campaign remains in a strong position to make our case to voters and win on November 5.”

Robinson has a long history of making inflammatory comments, including suggesting that women seeking abortions “weren’t responsible enough to keep their skirts down” and comparing abortion to slavery.

Stein said on CNN’s “State of the Union” Sunday that Robinson was “totally unqualified, unfit to be governor of North Carolina, and we’re going to do everything in our power to prevent that from happening.”

Polls show Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris in a tight race in North Carolina and nationally. Democrats have seized the opportunity to highlight Trump’s ties to Robinson, with billboards showing the two together and a new ad from Harris’ campaign highlighting the Republican candidates’ ties, as well as Robinson’s support for a statewide abortion ban without exceptions.

On Sunday, Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that Robinson deserved a chance to defend himself against the allegations, which he called “baffling.” He said Robinson was “a political zombie if he doesn’t offer a credible defense,” but said the issue would not hurt Trump.

“If these allegations are true, he is unfit to hold office,” Graham said of Robinson and the allegations in the CNN report. “If they are not true, he is entitled to the best defamation trial in the history of the country.”

Associated Press writer Jonathan Mattise in Nashville, Tennessee, contributed to this report.