Faithful supporters of former President Donald J. Trump lined up on Saturday afternoon to cheer him on at a rally at the Aero Center in Wilmington, N.C., their red shirts billowing from a beach-side breeze.
When asked about the former president’s chances of winning North Carolina, many in the crowd were confident and brimming with energy. They would be the force to keep the battleground state red for Mr. Trump.
But many of their smiles shrank when they were asked about the embattled Republican nominee for governor, Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson, who has been under fire since CNN reported this week on the lewd comments he made on a pornography website several years ago. According to CNN, Mr. Robinson wrote on the site that he was a “black NAZI,” that he enjoyed watching transgender pornography and that he defended slavery. He also recounted on the site how he went “peeping” on women in public gym showers as a teenager.
Few rally attendees believed the article about Mr. Robinson, who had already faced criticism for old Facebook posts that were widely condemned as racist, antisemitic and transphobic. And while many voters said they would still stand behind him, some acknowledged that the allegations were damning.
“Look, he’s toast,” said David Huffman, 60, of Wilmington, who wore a collared shirt printed with the American flag. “I’m still going to vote for Mark, but at this point it’s worse than a Hail Mary.”
Not only was Mr. Robinson not at the rally, but Mr. Trump also did not mention his name once to the thousands of supporters who were in attendance, the very people who helped fuel the rise of the lieutenant governor in 2020.
Those who stood firm on voting for Mr. Robinson used the same defense that he deployed this week: It was all fake, and the news media could not be trusted.
Other supporters offered Mr. Robinson some grace.
“If it’s true, we all got a past, and some of us got a past we aren’t proud of,” said Jason White, 41, of Columbus County. “People can change.”
Quintina Debose, 41, of Wilmington, said: “People do stuff all the time. They just don’t get caught.” The latest allegations, she said, were just a meaningless distraction.
But for some conservatives, the revelations were deeply concerning. Even if Mr. Trump won the state in the presidential election, they said, the chances for success for Mr. Robinson seemed less likely.
Thomas Hart, 31, of Wilmington, said he was sure about voting for Mr. Trump because his previous first choice, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., had endorsed the former president. That feeling does not extend to Mr. Robinson, though, because he has made some “pretty wild” remarks, Mr. Hart said.
Still, this was a Trump rally, and many remembered the support that the former president had shown Mr. Robinson in the past.
Bryan Faulcon, 39, of Wilmington, said he didn’t believe the allegations, but even if they were true, Mr. Robinson still had his vote. The calculation was simple, Mr. Faulcon said: policy over character.
“They can’t take him down,” he said.
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