Josh Stein will win North Carolina governor’s race, CNN projects

Democratic state Attorney General Josh Stein will win North Carolina’s gubernatorial race, CNN projects, defeating Republican Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson, whose campaign struggled as his history of incendiary remarks became public.

Democratic state Attorney General Josh Stein will win North Carolina’s gubernatorial race, CNN projects, defeating Republican Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson, whose campaign struggled as his history of incendiary remarks became public. Stein, who is currently serving his second term as attorney general, will become the state’s first Jewish governor. He will replace incumbent Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper, who is term-limited. Stein’s victory is a boon to Democrats as they have looked to the governorship to serve as a check on Republicans, who control both chambers of the legislature. The result also comes as little surprise. Though Democrats predicted a competitive race in the state, Robinson’s history of inflammatory comments ultimately doomed his campaign. State and national Republicans distanced themselves from Robinson after a CNN KFile report found that Robinson had made dozens of disturbing posts on a pornography website’s message board more than a decade ago, in which he called himself a “black Nazi” and a “perv,” admitted to watching women undress in a locker room and expressed support for reinstating slavery. Robinson denied that he made the posts, which were tied to a username CNN was able to identify as Robinson by matching a litany of biographical details and a shared email address between the two. Ahead of and after the story’s release, Robinson rejected calls from Republicans to drop out of the race.