Andrew Augustus' old tweets, most dating back to 2011 and 2012 when he was a student at Rhode Island College, were first reported by the Huffington Post.

CRANSTON, R.I. — Republican candidate for governor Allan Fung's campaign press secretary has resigned over a series of racist and sexist tweets he made while a college student several years ago.

Andrew Augustus, 28, is stepping down from the Fung campaign effective immediately, the campaign said in a news release on Tuesday from communications director Andrew Vargas Villa.

"Mayor Fung has accepted the resignation of Andrew Augustus effective immediately," Villa said in an email statement. "Upon hire, an inspection of his social media account was conducted, but obviously not six or seven years back. While Andrew is a different person now, and is extremely embarrassed by this, he does not want to reflect poorly on the Mayor or distract from any part of this campaign."

Augustus' old tweets, most dating back to 2011 and 2012 when he was a student at Rhode Island College, were first reported by the Huffington Post after being flagged by a former Cranston resident who has criticized Fung for blocking her on Twitter.

The tweets contain references to women he found unattractive and include jokes about Asian and black people, including one about former President Barack Obama's job performance.

"New conspiracy theory the white folk set up obama to be elected after bush so he would fail so america would never vote for a black man again," he tweeted in 2011.

"I am going to get a tattoo on my chest saying "No Fat Chicks," another tweet from 2012 said.

Independent candidate for governor Joe Trillo pounced on the resignation as evidence Fung was a bad manager.

"Allan Fung tried to sweep this under the rug," Trillo tweeted. "He’s a bad manager! He can’t manage his campaign team, so how would he ever manage state employees?"

Democratic Governors Association press secretary Melissa Miller hammered away in aid of incumbent Gov. Gina Raimondo.

"These sexist and racist tweets are unacceptable and the staffer made the right decision to resign," Miller said. "This episode raises serious questions about the judgment of Allan Fung, who failed to perform basic screening of his senior staff."

Augustus told The Providence Journal he deleted many of his old tweets on Monday.

Before joining the Fung campaign Augustus worked in communications for Democratic Providence Mayor Jorge Elorza.