RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Republican candidate for North Carolina governor Mark Robinson vowed Thursday to stay in the race despite a CNN report that found he posted sharply worded racial and sexual comments on an online forum. He said he won’t let “tasteless tabloid lies” get him out of the race.

Robinson, the incumbent lieutenant governor who won the Republican primary for governor in March, has trailed Democratic candidate Josh Stein, the current attorney general, in several recent polls.

“We’re staying in this race. We’re in it to win,” Robinson said in a video posted Thursday to the social media platform X. “And we know we will do it with your help.”

Robinson referenced a story he said was aired by CNN in the video, but he did not provide details.

“Let me reassure you, the things you’re going to see in that story — those are not Mark Robinson’s words,” he said. “You know my words. You know my character.”

The CNN report details a series of racist and sexual comments Robinson made on a pornography website message board more than a decade ago.

CNN reported that Robinson, who would become North Carolina’s first black governor, sharply attacked civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. and once called himself a “black Nazi.”

CNN also reported that Robinson wrote that he was aroused by a memory of “peeping” on women in the gym showers when he was 14, along with an appreciation for transgender porn. Robinson at one point called himself a “pervert,” CNN reported.

The Associated Press has not independently confirmed that Robinson wrote and posted the messages. CNN said it compared details of the account on the pornographic website forum with other online accounts belonging to Robinson, comparing usernames, a known email address and his full name.

CNN reported that details discussed by the account holder matched Robinson’s age, length of marriage and other biographical information. It also compared tropes that frequently appeared on his public Twitter profile with those that appeared in discussions by the account on the pornographic website.

The media has already reported on a 2021 speech Robinson gave at a church in which he used the word “filth” when talking about gays and transgender people.

Robinson has a history of making inflammatory comments that Stein said made him too extreme to lead North Carolina. They had already contributed to the prospect that Robinson’s campaign would hurt former President Donald Trump’s ability to win the state’s 16 electoral votes and potentially other GOP candidates on the lower ballot.

Recent polls of voters in North Carolina show Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris in a neck-and-neck race. The same polls showed Stein with a lead of about 10 points over Robinson.

Stein and his allies have repeatedly cited a 2019 Facebook post in which Robinson said abortion in America is about “killing the child because you’re not responsible enough to keep your skirt down.”

Stein’s campaign said in a statement after the report that “the people of North Carolina already know that Mark Robinson is completely unfit to be governor.”

State law says a nominee for governor can withdraw from the race no later than the day before the first mail-in ballots requested by military personnel and overseas voters are distributed. That begins Friday, so the deadline for withdrawal would be late Thursday night.

Trump has frequently endorsed Robinson, who is seen as a rising star in his party, known for his fiery speeches and evocative rhetoric. Before the March primary, Trump at a rally in Greensboro called Robinson “Martin Luther King on steroids” because of his speaking skills.

Trump’s campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the reports. Representatives for the GOP candidate’s campaign also did not immediately answer questions about why Robinson was not with vice presidential candidate J.D. Vance when he campaigned in Raleigh on Wednesday and whether Robinson would be with Trump in Wilmington on Saturday.

Robinson, 56, was elected lieutenant governor in 2020 in his first attempt at public office. He tells a life story of child poverty, jobs he blames on the North American Free Trade Agreement, and personal bankruptcy. His four-minute speech to the Greensboro City Council, in which he defended gun rights and lamented the “demonization” of police officers, went viral — and led to a board position on the National Rifle Association and popularity among conservative voters.