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.

Washington — North Carolina Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson, the Republican nominee for governor, posted a slew of incendiary, explicit and racist comments on a pornographic website more than a decade ago, according to a CNN investigation released Thursday that has shaken the state’s gubernatorial race.

Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson denied making inflammatory comments on a pornography website’s message board.