Mark Robinson is having a meltdown because of Republican support

A new poll shows Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson has lost support among North Carolina Republicans amid a scandal over alleged controversial past comments.

The East Carolina University poll shows support for the embattled gubernatorial candidate has dropped 20 percentage points among North Carolina Republicans.

The most recent poll shows Robinson has the support of 63 percent of Republican respondents, while the last poll showed he had 83 percent in favor.

According to the poll, Robinson now trails his opponent, Democrat Josh Stein, 50 percent to 33 percent.

The latest poll showed that Stein had a much narrower lead at 47 percent than Robinson at 41 percent.

The poll was conducted between September 23 and 26 and surveyed 1,005 registered voters. The survey's margin of error is +/- 3 percent.

Robinson was widely criticized after a CNN report claimed he once made controversial comments on an adult website's message board more than a decade ago.

Those messages reportedly included calling himself a “black Nazi,” talking about “peeping” women in public showers at gyms, defending slavery, and calling himself a “pervert” for watching transgender porn enjoys.

Newsweek Robinson's campaign emailed Robinson's campaign for comment outside of regular work hours.

Robinson has repeatedly denied the comments, calling them “salacious tabloid lies.”

However, the scandal led to the resignation of several of his key campaign staffers and sparked criticism within his own party.

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump endorsed Robinson for governor in March ahead of the North Carolina primary, calling him “Martin Luther King on steroids.”

However, the former president now appears to be distancing himself from Robinson, not mentioning him at a recent rally in Wilmington and telling a reporter last week, “I don't know the situation.”

It is too late for Robinson to leave the race as the deadline to replace him on the ballot has passed.

Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris are currently neck-and-neck in the swing state of North Carolina, and it is unclear whether the controversies surrounding Robinson will have a negative impact on Trump.

Experts said previously Newsweek that they generally don't think the issue will rub off on Trump, who narrowly won the state in the last two presidential elections.

The same East Carolina University poll shows Trump leading Harris by two percentage points, 49 percent to 47 percent, which is within the poll's margin of error.