ELLERBE, N.C. — Speaking to more than 100 supporters at an ice cream stand shaped like a giant strawberry, North Carolina Republican Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson beat his Democratic rival for governor and media, and said he would continue to fight as their race approaches. its conclusion.

“I am on the battlefield for the people of this state,” he said in a speech Wednesday.

In what was once expected to be one of the fiercest downhill races of the year, a candidate who won the support and enthusiastic praise of former President Donald Trump continues to play defensive Election day is approaching. He was largely outspent by his Democratic opponent, Attorney General Josh Stein, and he is still trying to soften the impact of a CNN report on offensive comments he allegedly made on an online pornographic site years before to stand for election.

Answering questions from reporters outside the Berry Patch in Ellerbe, 90 miles (145 kilometers) southwest of Raleigh, Robinson said he still believed he would win.

“People don’t care about salacious lies that allegedly happened 15 years ago. They don’t care about Facebook posts from 10 years ago,” Robinson said. “What they care about is how they’re going to feed their family, how they’re going to keep their business open, how they will give their child a good education.

North Carolina was projected early as the governor’s race to watch this fall — a battleground state matchup where statewide races are typically close and for an office that Democrats have held for almost four of the last 32 years.

In the final days of the campaign, the advantages appeared to favor another Democrat to succeed term-limited Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper.

Stein had a lead over Robinson in several polls of North Carolina voters conducted since Labor Day. Campaign finance reports filed this week presented Stein’s campaign with a massive haul: $44.6 million raised over a three-and-a-half month period ending in mid-October and $59.3 million spent in during the same period. Robinson’s campaign committee, meanwhile, has raised $4.1 million and spent nearly $10 million. During the election cycle, Stein outspent Robinson by a margin of nearly 4 to 1.

Stein’s financial advantage and the support of his allies helped them constantly remind voters of the blunt statements Robinson made on abortion, women and LGBTQ+ people that they said should disqualify him for office, all promoting the achievements of the Attorney General.

Robinson’s support took the hardest hit when CNN reported in September that Robinson had posted explicit racist and sexual messages on a pornographic website’s forum more than a decade ago. Robinson denied writing the messages, which The Associated Press has not independently confirmed, and sued CNN for defamation in October.

The trial is ongoing, but the report had immediate repercussions. Robinson’s top campaign aides resigned. The Republican Governors Association ended television advertising for Robinson. His campaign is no longer running ads and is focusing on social media and events in small towns and rural areas, like Ellerbe, where Republican Party turnout is high.

Trump has not revoked his support for Robinson, a man he once described as “Martin Luther King on steroids,” but Robinson no longer appears at Trump rallies. When asked last week, while touring Hurricane Helene relief efforts in western North Carolina, if he would urge voters to continue supporting Robinson, Trump responded: “I don’t know the state of the race right now.”

Robinson said Wednesday that he had spoken to Trump since the CNN report aired and that “his message to me was to keep going, keep fighting and win this race.”

Stein, meanwhile, assumes nothing. He reminds his supporters that he was re-elected attorney general in 2020 by fewer than 13,000 votes. He encourages get-out-the-vote efforts for him, Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris and down-ballot races.

“We work hard, with our heads down. We’re running hard to the finish line,” Stein told reporters after meeting with Democratic Party volunteers Tuesday in Smithfield, 30 miles (48 kilometers) southeast of Raleigh. “It’s about trying to speak to as many voters as possible about the clarity of the choice between our positive, hopeful, optimistic vision and (Robinson’s) divisive, angry, hateful vision.”

Robinson told supporters Wednesday that Stein spent $50 million on ads simply to promote an “I don’t like Mark Robinson” platform. Robinson said if elected, he would expand tax and education policies adopted by fellow Republicans who control the General Assembly. Stein’s agenda largely follows Cooper’s policy prescriptions in favor of public schools and clean energy, as well as against abortion restrictions and the expansion of private school vouchers.

Helen’s disastrous floods affected the countryside. As attorney general, Stein spoke at recovery news conferences and met with President Joe Biden during his visit. Robinson criticized Cooper for the state’s initial response and working with a sheriff to deliver relief supplies to the mountains.

Robinson, who will be the state’s first black governor, still enjoys support from conservatives — many of whom value his working-class history and emergence as a staunch gun rights advocate before becoming lieutenant governor. Stein would be the state’s first Jewish governor.

Some senior Republican officials, including House Speaker Tim Moore and Senate Leader Phil Berger, have not publicly severed ties with Robinson. A few statewide Republican candidates also support him.

At The Berry Patch, retired school custodian Raymond Moore, 69, of Ellerbe, who attended many Robinson events, called Robinson “a good man, a solid man” and dismissed the accusations . “Everyone has a past,” Moore said. “I know what he is today.”