Republican gubernatorial candidate Mark Robinson “is presently being handled for burns,” his communications director confirmed to NBC News on Friday evening.
“Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson is presently being handled for burns following an incident at a marketing campaign occasion in Mt. Airy. He is in good spirits,” mentioned Mike Lonergan, the Robinson marketing campaign’s communications director.
Lonergan was responding to an NBC News query a few NewsNation report saying that the North Carolina candidate was hospitalized.
Details surrounding the incident are unclear.
Robinson was beforehand set to talk throughout a North Carolina Faith & Freedom occasion on Saturday, however an organizer for the occasion mentioned Friday evening that the occasion needed to be canceled, noting that the venue didn’t have energy. Hurricane Helene wreaked havoc in components of North Carolina, particularly the western area of the state, the place the occasion was going to be held.
The incident got here simply days after a bombshell CNN report that alleged that the lieutenant governor made antisemitic and racist feedback on a porn web site years in the past.
In the times after the story broke, 4 prime employees members of the embattled Republican’s marketing campaign stepped down, although the marketing campaign didn’t hyperlink the departures to the report.
Robinson has remained defiant within the face of the allegations, regardless of some Republicans expressing concern over the report. Robinson has denied the allegations.
The Harris marketing campaign has sought to tie Robinson to former President Donald Trump, who endorsed him previous to the discharge of the CNN report, in hopes that the controversy surrounding Robinson’s candidacy helps Democrats flip the state blue. Trump received North Carolina by a slender margin in 2020, and Republicans have acknowledged that it could be tough for them to win the White House with out the state.