Democrats Seize on Robinson Scandal, Hoping to Sink Trump in a Key State

A scandal engulfing Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson of North Carolina, the Republican nominee for governor, has Democrats feeling even more optimistic about Vice President Kamala Harris’s chances of winning a pivotal swing state.

Minutes after CNN published a report on Thursday saying that Mr. Robinson called himself a “black NAZI!,” discussed his pornography habits and praised slavery in an adult online forum, the Harris campaign and its allies amped up their efforts to link him to former President Donald J. Trump.

“Best friends,” the Harris campaign wrote on X above a video of Mr. Trump and Mr. Robinson repeatedly praising each other. Her team circulated another video that showed Mr. Trump calling Mr. Robinson “better than Martin Luther King.” The effort continued into Friday, when the Democratic National Committee unveiled billboards in the Charlotte, Greensboro and Raleigh areas showing the two men smiling together.

Soon after, the Harris campaign released a television advertisement in North Carolina that juxtaposed footage of Mr. Trump paying tribute to Mr. Robinson alongside video of the lieutenant governor condemning women who have had abortions for not being “responsible enough to keep your skirt down.”

“Donald Trump and Mark Robinson: They’re both wrong for North Carolina,” the ad’s narrator says.

The strategy is clear: The Democrats want Mr. Trump to own all of Mr. Robinson’s baggage, hoping it will turn out their base while convincing independent voters and moderate Republicans to repudiate both men and cast their ballots for Ms. Harris instead.

“They’re one and the same,” Zack Hawkins, a Democratic state representative in North Carolina, said of Mr. Trump and Mr. Robinson. “We need to be shouting it from the rooftops.