Crys­tal Ball’s ’emer­gency’ North Car­oli­na rat­ings change moves gov­er­nor race fur­ther in Democ­rats’ favor

Lar­ry Sabato‘s Crys­tal Ball announced it is shift­ing the North Car­oli­na guber­na­to­r­i­al race from “lean D” to “like­ly D” after a con­tro­ver­sial report was released con­cern­ing Lt. Gov. Mark Robin­son, the Repub­li­can nom­i­nee.
Saba­to, the founder of the Uni­ver­si­ty of Virginia’s Cen­ter for Pol­i­tics, said he called “an emer­gency ses­sion” to change the race’s rat­ing.
“The Crys­tal Ball team has just met in emer­gency ses­sion, and in the fastest rat­ing change in our his­to­ry, we are mov­ing NC GOVERNOR from Lean D to LIKELY D,” Saba­to said in a post on X.
The report released on Robin­son details com­ments he alleged­ly made in a porno­graph­ic web forum between 2008 and 2012. He is accused of say­ing he wished to own slaves, express­ing his enjoy­ment of trans­gen­der pornog­ra­phy, and call­ing Mar­tin Luther King Jr. a “com­mie,” among oth­er things.
Robin­son denied the details of the report, call­ing it “sala­cious tabloid trash,” and vowed to stay in the guber­na­to­r­i­al race.
The North Car­oli­na guber­na­to­r­i­al race has Demo­c­ra­t­ic Attor­ney Gen­er­al Josh Stein build­ing a lead over …