Republicans in North Carolina and across the country are considering the potential implications for former President Donald Trump from a sensational report alleging that Lieutenant Governor Mark Robinson, the party’s gubernatorial candidate, posted disturbing and inflammatory statements on a forum on a pornographic website.

CNN reported Thursday that Robinson, who reportedly goes by an anonymous username he has used elsewhere, made the comments more than a decade ago, including supporting slavery, calling himself a “black NAZI” and recalling “spying” on women in the shower as a 14-year-old.

ABC News has not independently verified whether the comments were made by Robinson, and he insisted in a video sent to X before the article was published that “these are not the words of Mark Robinson.”

But Robinson, an ally of Donald Trump, already has a history of inflammatory remarks about Jews, homosexuals and others. And the election in North Carolina, one of the country’s key swing states, hangs on a knife edge. The question is to what extent the latest news will affect his election and that of the other Republicans on the ballot with him – including the former president.

“I think this just adds to the toxicity of the Robinson campaign, and the real question is: What is the level of fallout at the top of the Republican ticket and on the ballot here in North Carolina?” asks Michael Bitzer, chair of the politics department at Catawba College.

“This can’t be something that voters won’t recognize and will likely do more to weaken Republican support. Is this just limited to Robinson’s campaign or is it starting to have an impact on Trump? Does it have an impact on other Republican executive positions at the state level? We’ll just have to wait and see, but this seems to be a pretty significant event in North Carolina politics.”

Robinson, who describes himself as a conservative family man and is running for governor in North Carolina against Democratic Attorney General Josh Stein, is already behind in the polls.

Despite holding national office and being a household name, Robinson has a highly controversial past, including calling the Holocaust “nonsense” and homosexuality “filth.” He was accused of hypocrisy when he admitted this year that he paid for his wife’s abortion – apparently contradicting his stated opposition to the procedure, which he had previously compared to “murder” and “genocide.”

Given the strong partisan divide between states, North Carolina’s governor’s race is still considered a tight one, but Republicans in the state told ABC News they already had him trailing and Thursday’s report won’t help them.

“He already has a long history of posting these kinds of comments online. These are maybe a little more graphic. Whether that alone is a guillotine, I don’t know. But it feels like the cumulative weight is adding up now,” said a North Carolina GOP strategist. “It goes against everything he presents publicly about himself. So, cumulatively and with the hypocrisy that comes with it, it’s obviously hurtful to him.”

Republicans were divided over what this means beyond Robinson’s own candidacy.

North Carolina is a must-win state for Trump. A defeat there would put him under considerable pressure to be successful in other swing states as well.

Trump is already ahead of Robinson – while polls show Robinson trailing, they also show a neck-and-neck race between the former president and Vice President Kamala Harris. The main question now is whether this news will depress Republican turnout in a state where even a small nudge in turnout one way or the other can decide the winner.

“(Robinson) was already done. The question is whether it hurts Trump, which the campaign is very concerned about,” said Doug Heye, a veteran GOP strategist with experience in North Carolina. “It doesn’t cost him voters directly, but his endorsement continues to be a major distraction and has no money to win votes.”

“He’s a baby blue anchor for Trump’s chances in the Tar Heel State,” added Trump donor Dan Eberhart. “That’s not good news at all for Trump’s campaign.”

Democrats are already using this news to link Robinson to Trump, who has repeatedly praised him and once even called him “Martin Luther King on steroids.”

Kamala HQ, an X-site that serves as one of the Harris campaign’s rapid response tools, released a series of videos in which Trump speaks positively about Robinson.

“His campaign was already over before this story, so the real impact will be on all the Republicans who supported him and campaigned with him,” said Bruce Thompson, a Democratic fundraiser in North Carolina.

Trump, however, has managed to navigate his own difficulties, including felony convictions in New York, questions about Harris’s race, and more, while remaining the leader of his party and a strong presidential candidate. Some Republicans doubt that Robinson’s problems will have any impact on the presidential campaign.

“I doubt it will have any impact on the rest of the election,” said Dave Carney, a Republican strategist who chairs a pro-Trump super PAC.

“I don’t think it will help, but it won’t hurt,” added Sean Spicer, Trump’s first White House press secretary.

Trump’s campaign spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt was confident and said in a statement that the former president’s team would “not lose sight of the ball.”

“President Trump’s campaign is focused on winning the White House and saving this country. North Carolina is an essential part of that plan. We are confident that President Trump will win the Tarheel State again as voters compare Trump’s record of a strong economy, low inflation, a secure border and safe streets with the failures of Biden-Harris,” she said.

However, sources familiar with the matter said the Trump campaign team had prepared for a story about Robinson to appear and planned to create more distance between the former president and controversial candidate Robinson – but had no immediate plans to ask him to withdraw.

“He doesn’t seem to be affected by what’s happening on the ballots below him,” the North Carolina Republican strategist said of Trump. “It’s definitely not helping him. But is it hurting him? I don’t know, I think that’s an open question.”