Republican gubernatorial candidate treated for burns after ‘campaign incident’

Mark Robinson, the embattled Republican candidate for governor of North Carolina, was treated for burns at the hospital after an “incident” at a campaign event.

His representatives did not detail what happened, but said Robinson was recovering from second-degree burns and was in good spirits after an “incident during a campaign appearance at the Mayberry Truck Show.”

It comes days after several senior advisers resigned from his campaign following allegations that the candidate made racist comments more than a decade ago on the forum of a pornographic website under the name user name “Black Nazi”.

Robinson, who is running for the state’s first black governor and has previously been endorsed by Donald Trump, has denied the reports.

Robinson was attending a campaign event in Mount Airy, a city near the North Carolina-Virginia border, when the latest incident occurred.

He was taken to hospital and treated for burns. Second-degree burns are the most common type of burn. Although not as serious as third-degree burns, they are injuries that cause pain, redness, swelling, and blisters on the skin.

Robinson’s representatives said he would resume public campaigning on Saturday.

The candidate has been campaigning this week, resisting pressure from state Republicans and, reportedly, Trump’s team to withdraw from the race.

A September 19 CNN report said he posted comments on a porn site’s forum more than a decade ago in which he called himself a “black Nazi” and allegedly said in a message that he preferred Hitler to then-President Barack Obama.

Robinson, who was elected North Carolina’s first Black lieutenant governor in 2020, called the report “tabloid lies” and said the posts were not his words.

Within days of the report’s release, his campaign manager, deputy campaign manager, finance director and senior adviser all resigned.

Robinson has previously received direct public support from Donald Trump, who called him “Martin Luther King on steroids,” but he has not been seen with the Republican presidential candidate since the report’s release.

Since then, Trump has held two rallies in North Carolina, and on Thursday, when asked whether he would withdraw his support, he told reporters, “I don’t know the situation.”

Kamala Harris’ campaign also took advantage of the controversy surrounding Robinson’s campaign by releasing a video. Polls showed Harris and Trump effectively tied among likely voters in the potentially crucial state.