NC Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson says the CNN story about derogatory comments won’t force him out of the governor’s race.

Democrats are trying to tie Republican candidates up and down the ballot to Robinson after Thursday’s CNN report.

CNN reported an account associated with Robinson, the state’s sitting lieutenant governor, made a string of incendiary statements on a pornographic website forum between 2008 and 2012, including disparaging Martin Luther King Jr.

The former president was an early backer of Mr. Robinson’s bid to become governor of North Carolina, a race that was jolted when CNN reported that Mr. Robinson had made disturbing posts online.