North Carolina voters on Tuesday rejected scandal-plagued Republican Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson and elevated state Attorney General Josh Stein to the governor's office.
Mr. Stein received 775,821 votes (51.7%) and Mr. Robinson received 653,335 votes (43.6%), giving him 25% of the vote, the Associated Press reported.
Stein will replace fellow Democrat Roy Cooper, who has served in a term-limited term since 2016.
Despite this Republican loss at the state level, North Carolina voters are expected to deliver the state's 16 electoral votes to Donald Trump, giving him his third victory in the Tar Heel state.
Opinion polls showed Mr. Robinson would not be a hindrance to Mr. Trump in the lead, and many of those who voted for Mr. Trump were expected to split their votes and vote for Mr. Stein.
Republicans had hoped Robinson, once a rising star in the party, would take back North Carolina's executive branch.
But the lieutenant governor's campaign has been dogged by scandal, culminating in a shocking CNN report in September that accused him of “inappropriately sexual” behavior dozens of times on pornographic forums over a 16-year period. exposed speciesist remarks.
The posts, written under the pseudonym “Mini-Solder,” included fantasies from the time of “peeping” on women in public showers and declaring himself a “black Nazi.”
He is said to have shared these creepy thoughts on message boards for porn site Nude Africa between 2008 and 2012.
“Slavery is not a bad thing. Some people need to be slaves. I wish they would take it back. Of course I'm going to buy some,” the 2010 post said. .
Before these posts were discovered, several employees of a Greensboro porn video store Robinson told local news outlets that he was a regular customer. It was founded in the 1990s and early 2000s.
Robinson's political identity is built on staunch social conservatism and frequent references to his Christian faith journey, and he continues to deny all allegations.
