Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson of North Carolina, the Republican nominee for governor, vowed to stay in the race and pre-emptively denied the CNN report, which described years-old online remarks it said he made.

North Carolina's Republican candidate for governor promised to stay in the race on Thursday after CNN reported that he once called himself a "black NAZI!" and proposed bringing back slavery in comments posted on a pornography website.

North Carolina Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson, the state’s Republican candidate for governor, said he would stay in the race and denied new accusations that he posted racist, antigay and inflammatory comments on a pornography-website message board more than a decade ago.