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In his 2022 memoir, We Are the Majority, Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson wrote that he committed his life to Jesus in the late 1980s. 

โ€œI did not, however, experience a drastic conversion like some do,โ€ wrote Robinson, now the Republican nominee for governor. โ€œMy behavior did not immediately reform. They say sin is fun for a season, and I was in that season.โ€ 

Robinson didnโ€™t specify how long that season lasted or what sins it entailed. But according to Louis Money, who worked in several of Greensboroโ€™s windowless, 24-hour video-pornography stores, Robinson was a frequent customer in the 1990s and early 2000s. Money, 52, told The Assembly that Robinson came in as often as five nights a week to watch porn videos in a private booth.

Five other men who said they were former employees or customers during this period also told The Assembly that Robinson visited two of these stores: Gents Video & News and I-40 Video & News. 

The Impact of Our Reporting

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Our reporting was cited in numerous national outlets, including the New York Times, The Atlantic, Semafor, and The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.

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Later reporting from CNN on Robinson’s comments on online pornography sites directly referenced this reporting.

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Robinson filed, and then later dropped, a defamation lawsuit against CNN and Louis Money.

In addition, Money said Robinson purchased โ€œhundredsโ€ of bootleg porn videos that Money sold on the side. 

โ€œHe was good for at least one a week,โ€ Money said. But Money said Robinson didnโ€™t pay for the last one, which he described as a compilation of โ€œsuper hardcoreโ€ films he acquired in New York City that were too risquรฉ to be sold in North Carolina. 

He said he doesnโ€™t really care about the $25 Robinson owes him for that tape. Nor is he trying to derail the Republicanโ€™s campaign for governor. An unaffiliated voter, he said he likes Robinson as a person, if not necessarily his politics. 

But what he described as a โ€œfunny storyโ€ offered an opportunity for self-promotion. In mid-August, Moneyโ€™s band, Trailer Park Orchestra, released a YouTube video for their song โ€œThe Lt. Governor Owes Me Money.โ€ In the video, an actor in a dark suit and something approximating a Robinson mask walks into an adult video store to buy porn while Money sings, โ€œI made you a bootleg. I did it all the time. Most of the time you paid me. I guess it, uh, slipped your mind.โ€

Responding to a detailed list of questions, Robinson campaign spokesperson Mike Lonergan told The Assembly in an email that Moneyโ€™s claims were โ€œbullshitโ€ and a โ€œcomplete and total fiction.โ€ He called Money and The Assemblyโ€™s reporters โ€œdegenerates.โ€ 

โ€œThis false and personal attack on my boss is complete fiction,โ€ Lonergan wrote.

Robinson was elected North Carolinaโ€™s first Black lieutenant governor in 2020, two years after a fiery gun-rights speech to the Greensboro City Council made him a political celebrity. He quickly became the stateโ€™s most controversial public official. Robinsonโ€™s commentary often targets those who donโ€™t ascribe to his conservative interpretation of Christianity or share his views on sexuality and gender issues. 

Screenshots of Money’s music video.

Robinson is said to have frequented Greensboroโ€™s adult video stores during a formative period of his life. He was in his 20s and early 30s, a married father of two bouncing around restaurant and manufacturing jobs, often struggling to pay the bills. He was also, by his own account, not yet fully grounded in the Christian faith that would define his later political career.

โ€œWhen I got saved, the devil doubled down in my life,โ€ he told the Bethel Free Will Baptist Church in Kinston in 2021. โ€œ[God] told me what I was supposed to do. As I was doing wrong, that voice was in the back of my head, saying, ‘Stop it! Stop it! Stop it!โ€™ And I still continued in disobedience after being saved. And Iโ€™m not ashamed to say it.โ€

โ€˜A Great Deal of Growing Up to Doโ€™

Robinson, who turned 56 on August 18, was the son of an abusive alcoholic who died when he was 12. He graduated from Greensboroโ€™s Grimsley High School in 1986. He spent a semester at North Carolina A&T University but dropped out. He later wrote that he lacked the discipline to continue: โ€œI had become far more interested in chasing pretty girls than learning anything in the classroom.โ€

In high school, he was a member of the Junior Reserve Officersโ€™ Training Corps. He imagined himself becoming a combat soldier and obsessed over the movie First Blood, he wrote. After graduation, he joined the Army Reserve as a medical specialist. Later, he enlisted in the regular Army but dropped out before his enlistment began. (The Army placed him into the Individual Ready Reserve, an unpaid status that freed Robinson from drills and training.)

He wrote that he wasnโ€™t suited to military life. โ€œI was too much of a talker and didnโ€™t want to always keep my opinions to myself.โ€

During his semester at A&T, a friend took him to Evangel Fellowship Church, which met in the universityโ€™s student union. โ€œThatโ€™s the night I got saved and formed a personal relationship with Jesus,โ€ he wrote. โ€œI donโ€™t remember who was preaching. I donโ€™t remember much beyond the profound, life-changing experience that I felt within.โ€ 

But, he added, he still โ€œhad a great deal of growing up to do.โ€ 

In 1989, Robinson, then 20 or 21 years old, paid for his girlfriend Yolanda Hillโ€™s abortion. A year later, he and Hill married while she was pregnant with their first child.

โ€œMy perspective on life changed immediately upon the birth of my son,โ€ Robinson wrote. โ€œI was the one God had given charge over this child. I had to be a responsible man.โ€

copies of Mark Robinson's memoir
Copies of Mark Robinsonโ€™s book, We Are The Majority, ready for signing. (Peyton Sickles for The Assembly)

Robinson worked at Dominoโ€™s Pizza and Sbarro early in their relationship, but he wanted to find a career. His wifeโ€™s uncle helped him land a job in a furniture manufacturing business, โ€œthe first place I made enough money to support a family,โ€ he wrote. 

He quit after his hours were cut, which he blamed on NAFTA, the free-trade agreement that took effect in 1994. Robinson got an $8-an-hour part-time job at Papa Johns. He wrote that he worked his way up to a general manager position before he left to go back to college. 

Between 1998 and 2003, the Robinson family filed for bankruptcy three times. During that period, Robinson also failed to file income taxes, and two of the familyโ€™s cars were repossessed, according to court records and media reports

Robinson wrote in his memoir that he โ€œwas guilty of bad money management; when I had money and should have been putting it in the bank or spending it on essential things โ€ฆ I was just throwing money away.โ€

In 2000, Robinson quit college to join his wifeโ€™s daycare business. In the next few years, the Robinsons lost their house to foreclosure and sold their struggling business. He completed his bachelorโ€™s degree at UNC-Greensboro in 2022.

โ€œMy perspective on life changed immediately upon the birth of my son. I was the one God had given charge over this child. I had to be a responsible man.โ€

Mark Robinson’s memoir

Robinson wrote that he embraced conservatism after reading Rush Limbaughโ€™s book The Way Things Ought to Be in the late โ€™90s. He also wrote that he began attending Guilford County Republican Party meetings during George W. Bushโ€™s 2000 presidential campaign. But he said he found the local party hidebound, so he stopped engaging. 

โ€œThe party at that point didnโ€™t want to fight,โ€ Robinson wrote. โ€œAnybody who was a fighter had been run out of the party, and they were a bunch of milquetoast sorts who just wanted to talk about lower taxes and less government.โ€

Three former leaders of the Guilford GOP, including former Greensboro City Council member Tony Wilkins, told The Assembly they donโ€™t remember Robinson during this periodโ€”a large Black man would have stood out, they saidโ€”and were not aware of him until after his gun speech in 2018.    

โ€˜A Good Amount of Moneyโ€™ 

Money said he began working at Gents Video & News in 1992, soon after he graduated from high school. He stayed in the video porn business for the next 15 years, working for and managing various Greensboro-area stores, including Gents and I-40 Video & News. (Money is, in fact, his legal name.)

These stores were notorious in Greensboro in the 1990s. Anti-pornography activists protested in parking lots, videotaping customers as they entered and holding picket signs that read, โ€œDo your wife and children know youโ€™re here?โ€ Police, city officials, and conservative Christian groups lobbied to close them as nuisances.  

โ€œThe government tried for years to shut us down,โ€ Money said. โ€œThe only thing that did was the internet.โ€ 

Gents didnโ€™t rent porn videos, Money said. Customers could only buy them for about $50 or โ€œpreviewโ€ them in private booths for $8 a pop. Robinson typically watched two or more previews in a visit, Money said. 

โ€œEvery night that I worked, which would have been five nights a week, I saw Mark,โ€ Money recalled. โ€œHe was spending a good amount of money.โ€ 

a Papa John's location where Mark Robinson once worked
The Papa Johns on South Holden Road in Greensboro where Robinson worked in the 1990s. (Photo by Don Carrington)

This went on for several years, Money said. Robinson came in after his shifts at pizza restaurants and hung out for hours. He said Robinsonโ€™s tastes were fairly standard for a straight man. Though he added, โ€œI know he might have problems with gay people, but I donโ€™t think he has problems with lesbians.โ€

Robinsonโ€™s campaign vehemently rejected Moneyโ€™s claims. 

โ€œCategorical no to all of the ridiculous allegations,โ€ Lonergan, the Robinson spokesperson, wrote to The Assembly. He said Robinson knew Money because โ€œMoney used to hang out at the Papa Johns where Mark Robinson worked in the โ€™90s and ask for free pizza, but thatโ€™s the extent of the relationship.โ€

Lonergan also called Money a โ€œfreak show grifterโ€ and said he had a โ€œlong history of criminal charges.โ€ 

Court records show that Money has faced nine criminal charges in Guilford County since 2011. Money pleaded guilty to misdemeanor drug charges in 2018 and 2021, and prosecutors dropped felony marijuana charges in 2018 as part of a plea deal. The other cases were dismissed. 

โ€œFor somebody who doesnโ€™t know who I am, they looked me up really quick,โ€ Money said of the Robinson campaign.

โ€œThe government tried for years to shut us down. The only thing that did was the internet.โ€ 

Louis Money

Money admitted that he sold marijuana for two decades, though never to Robinson. He also admitted that he asked Robinson for โ€œa free pizza here and there.โ€ But the rest of Robinsonโ€™s version is โ€œnot true at all,โ€ he said. 

โ€œI think I went in that [Papa Johns] one time the whole time that I knew him,โ€ Money said. He pointed out that the Papa Johns only had takeout and delivery. โ€œThis is how you know thatโ€™s bullshit, because Papa Johns arenโ€™t sit-down restaurants. Thereโ€™s no place to hang out in there.โ€  

Asked about Robinsonโ€™s spokesperson calling him a โ€œdegenerateโ€ and a โ€œgrifter,โ€ Money laughed. โ€œI think Iโ€™m going to write a song called โ€˜Freak Show Grifter,โ€™โ€ he said. 

โ€˜A Regular Dudeโ€™

Lonergan criticized The Assembly for relying on Moneyโ€™s account. But five other men backed up his story.

They are all Moneyโ€™s longtime acquaintances, and none is inclined to vote for Robinson. But they donโ€™t appear to have political agendas. A review of state and federal databases didnโ€™t show any significant political contributions in the last decade.

Dan Livingston, who said he was a Gents customer in the mid to late 1990s, told The Assembly that he saw Robinson โ€œfrom time to time.โ€ Livingston said Robinson usually came in with a pizza, purchased a preview, and went into a private booth to watch it and eat.

Livingston said he had โ€œcasualโ€ conversations with Robinson but didnโ€™t get to know him that well. He didnโ€™t know of Robinsonโ€™s political leanings until after he made headlines for his pro-gun speech in 2018. Livingston is not a supporter: โ€œHeโ€™s not put forth anything that I can see as constructive.โ€

Leo Mitchell, who said he and Robinson shared a mutual acquaintance, used to stop by Gents after work. He said he saw Robinson โ€œevery now and then.โ€ Mitchell thought he was a โ€œregular dude. He didnโ€™t really seem hyper-political.โ€  

Money had more vivid recollections. He described the future lieutenant governor as funny.

โ€œI mean, like, hilarious,โ€ he said. โ€œHe would have like five or six of us up front dying laughing at 4 in the morning. Almost like a standup routineโ€”not copying Andrew Dice Clay, but almost like doing an Andrew Dice Clay comedy bit.โ€

Gentsโ€™ backroom catered to the gay community, and Robinsonโ€™s jokes often targeted the storeโ€™s gay clientele, Money added. โ€œI hate to admit this, but he was very homophobic,โ€ Money said. 

Another former Gents customer, who spoke on the condition he not be named, recalled Robinson as a โ€œjokester.โ€ 

โ€œMark would come in,โ€ he said. โ€œHeโ€™d bring pizza every once in a while, and heโ€™d tell jokes and what have you, and then go look at videos.โ€

Mark Robinson speaks to crowd
Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson addresses the crowd at the 2022 Salt & Light Conference in Charlotte. (Peyton Sickles for The Assembly)

This person said he later went to work at I-40 Video & News with Money. โ€œAnd the same thing. I worked third shift over there, and heโ€™d come in late at night,โ€ he said. โ€œSometimes he brings a pizza, and he, you know, would buddy up to everybody.โ€ 

At I-40, customers could take rental movies home. Money said Robinson didnโ€™t stay there for hours on end. He would chat for a few minutes, rent a couple of movies, and return them a day or two later, Money said.

Scott Andrews said he worked at I-40 and played in a rap-rock band with Money. He said Robinson was a โ€œpretty regularโ€ customer in the mid to late 1990s. 

โ€œHe would talk for 10, 15, 20 minutes about every time he came in there,โ€ Andrews said. โ€œWe talked about music.โ€

Ken Burwell, who said he also worked at I-40, said Robinson came in โ€œoftenโ€ around 1996 and 1997. He said that he remembered Robinson because Robinson brought them free pizzas from Papa Johns even when he didnโ€™t rent videos. 

โ€œHe was a cool dude,โ€ Burwell said. โ€œHe wasnโ€™t an asshole like he is now.โ€ 

Burwell said he doesnโ€™t understand why Robinson would deny patronizing porn shops or attack Money. It happened decades ago, he said, and it wasnโ€™t illegal.  

โ€œItโ€™s not a big deal,โ€ Burwell said. โ€œTo me, itโ€™s like, so what?โ€

Another person reached by The Assembly, Richard Wilkinson, managed I-40, according to Money. Asked about Robinson, Wilkinson said, โ€œIโ€™m not giving out any information about that,โ€ and hung up. Money said Wilkinson, who currently works with him at a Greensboro sporting goods store, supports Robinsonโ€™s campaign.

(Money said several other former associates from this period he contacted, including an ex-girlfriend, did not remember seeing Robinson in Gents or I-40.)  

Money said he usually charged $25 for the bootleg porn tapes he made, which typically comprised several porn movies dubbed onto a single VHS tape. 

โ€œInstead of them buying a $50 movie for one, I would put three of them on there and sell it for $20, $25,โ€ Money said. โ€œAnd I did that up until about 2004โ€”which is when Mark owed me the money.โ€ 

Money said he made that last bootleg after traveling to New York City to watch a New York Dolls reunion concert. While in the Big Apple, he scored porn tapes that were too explicit to be sold in North Carolina at the time. 

โ€œSo I picked it up, bought it, and just sold it to all my customers,โ€ Money said. โ€œIncluding Mark.โ€

Money said he usually fronted Robinson bootlegs and cashed his postdated checks later. (โ€œI totally wish the bank still had copies of the checks,โ€ Money said.) But Robinson never paid for the last one, he said. And after that, Robinson stopped coming into I-40 Video & News.  

That wasnโ€™t unusual. Business dried up as internet porn became ubiquitous, and many storesโ€”including Gents and I-40โ€”eventually closed. 

โ€˜A Steady Diet of Communism and Pornographyโ€™

In 1973, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that adult pornography was protected by the First Amendment so long as it had โ€œserious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value.โ€ But in recent years, some members of Donald Trumpโ€™s Make America Great Again movement have pushed again to crack down on what they view as obscenity. 

Porn โ€œhas no claim to First Amendment protectionโ€ and โ€œshould be outlawed,โ€ declared Project 2025, the Heritage Foundationโ€™s blueprint for a second Trump administration. โ€œThe people who produce and distribute it should be imprisoned.โ€ (Trump has tried to distance himself from Project 2025, though many of its architects worked for him.)

Robinson does not appear to have taken a position on whether porn should be legal. And itโ€™s not clear whether he took a public position on a bill the General Assembly passed in 2023 that required online porn sites to verify that users are at least 18 years old. A porn industry spokesman called it โ€œbackdoor censorship.โ€ In response, Pornhub blocked North Carolina users on January 1. 

an autobody show located where Greensboro a porn shop used to be
A former video porn shop Robinson allegedly frequented at 3722 W. Gate City Blvd. is now an auto shop. (Photo by Don Carrington)

But Robinson has used the word โ€œpornographyโ€ to describe everything from music and network television to LGBTQ-themed childrenโ€™s books. During this yearโ€™s N.C. Republican Party Convention, for example, Robinson called public school teachers and administrators โ€œall-powerful bureaucrats โ€ฆ who believe itโ€™s OK to feed your children a steady diet of communism and pornography.โ€

Rhetoric like this fueled Robinsonโ€™s rapid ascent in state politics. For the men who say they knew him from his porn-shop days, it was jarring to watch Robinson become a national political figure. 

โ€œThatโ€™s whatโ€™s so shockingโ€”heโ€™s nothing like that today,โ€ said Andrews, who said he worked in I-40 Video & News. โ€œItโ€™s like heโ€™s embarrassed of who he used to be or whatever. I spent years as a Christian, too, but I didnโ€™t run for office and get in pulpits and shout about all the craziness I used to do and yell at people for it. Because thatโ€™s pretty much what heโ€™s done.โ€

But while the culture wars propelled Robinson to an easy victory in this yearโ€™s Republican primary for governor, itโ€™s unclear how well that will translate to the general electionโ€™s broader audience. Robinson has moderated his position on abortion and sought to highlight his working-class background, but he has struggled to shake a long record of conspiratorial statements and hostile comments toward women, gays, and Jewish people

โ€œItโ€™s like heโ€™s embarrassed of who he used to be or whatever. I spent years as a Christian, too, but I didnโ€™t run for office and get in pulpits and shout about all the craziness I used to do and yell at people for it.โ€

Scott Andrews, former I-40 employee

More recently, his campaign has been buffeted by a controversy involving his wifeโ€™s now-closed nonprofit, Balanced Nutrition. The state Department of Health and Human Services says it must repay $132,000 in federal funds, in part for filing for reimbursements for payments the nonprofit did not make. (Balanced Nutrition asked the DHHS for an โ€œinformal conferenceโ€ to dispute the allegations. As of August 27, the conference had not been scheduled, according to a DHHS spokesperson.)

Robinson heads into Labor Day trailing Attorney General Josh Stein, the Democratic nominee for governor, by double digits in some polls.

โ€˜We Have Always Been Coolโ€™ 

The morning of the November 2022 election, Money said he was working out at a Planet Fitness in High Point when he heard a loud voice bellow, โ€œLouis!โ€

โ€œI was like, who the hell knows me in High Point?โ€ he said. 

Mark Robinson and Louis Money smile for a photo at a gym
Money’s Facebook post.

It was Robinson. They hadnโ€™t seen each other in at least a decade, he said. They talked for about 20 minutes. 

โ€œI was like, โ€˜Dude, Iโ€™m so proud of you, man,โ€™โ€ Money recalled. โ€œโ€˜I disagree with you. But Iโ€™m proud of what you accomplished for yourself.โ€™โ€ 

Money said he chided Robinson over the $25 he says he was owed for the bootleg porn tape. โ€œI was like, โ€˜Iโ€™m so glad that you didnโ€™t pay me,โ€™โ€ Money said. โ€œโ€˜I tell everybody in the world that, you know, the lieutenant governor owes me money, so I donโ€™t even want your money anymore.โ€™โ€

He said Robinson laughed. 

โ€œI was like, โ€˜Man, I can’t wait to do a song about it,โ€™โ€ Money said. โ€œHe didn’t chuckle with that one.โ€

He posted a photo of himself and Robinson on X, formerly Twitter, and on his Facebook page, which is private: โ€œI disagree politically with this guy. However we have always been cool,โ€ he wrote on Facebook. โ€œThatโ€™s our Lt. Governor who still owes me money LOL.โ€ 

Money told The Assembly that his song wasnโ€™t meant to criticize Robinson. He called it an โ€œinside joke that Iโ€™m sharing with the world.โ€ 

โ€œI donโ€™t know if he still watches porn,โ€ he said. โ€œYou know, people change in 20 years.โ€

Don Carrington and Tim Funk contributed reporting for this article. 


Jeffrey Billman reports on politics and the law forย The Assembly. Email him atย jeffrey@theassemblync.com.

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Joe Killian is The Assembly’s Greensboro editor. He covered cops, courts, government and politics at Greensboro’s daily paper, The News & Record, for a decade. He joined us from NC Newsline in Raleigh, where he was senior investigative reporter.

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