The party is prohibited from selecting a replacement who already ran in the same race in this year’s primary. That means State Treasurer Dale Folwell and attorney Bill Graham would not be allowed to replace Robinson.

Mark Robinson, North Carolina's Republican gubernatorial candidate, released a video statement Thursday afternoon saying he's staying in the race following damning allegations reported by CNN. CNN claims that Robinson – under a username he allegedly used frequently online -- made several inflammatory comments on a message board of a pornography website more than a decade ago,