Mark Robinson – Photo: Anthony Crider/Flickr – CC; Sex Shop sign – Photo: stevanovicigor/123rf
A former porn shop employee claimed that North Carolina Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson allegedly frequented adult video stores in the 1990s and early 2000s.
Robinson, the Republican Party’s nominee for governor, is known for his vitriol directed against members of the LGBTQ community and other political enemies.
Louis Money, an employee of several 24-hour adult video stores during the time period, including Gents and I-40 Video & News, told the North Carolina investigative outlet The Assembly that Robinson was a regular customer, sometimes coming in as often as five nights a week to watch pornographic videos in a private booth.
According to Money, Robinson typically watched two or more “previews” in private booths for $8 a piece during each visit. While the stores catered to both straight and gay clientele, Money says Robinson’s tastes were fairly standard for a straight man.
“I know he might have problems with gay people, but I don’t think he has problems with lesbians,” said Money.
Money remembers Robinson as funny, cracking jokes during his visits to Gents and performing a standup-type routine for employees and a few customers, although many of those jokes would target the store’s gay clientele. “I hate to say this, but he was very homophobic,” Money said.
Money said Robinson purchased “hundreds” of bootleg porn videos that Money sold on the side, buying at least one a week.
However, he added that Robinson didn’t pay for the last one, which he described as a compilation of “super hardcore” films he purchased in New York City that were too risqué to be sold in North Carolina.
An unaffiliated voter who claims he likes Robinson as a person, if not a politician, Money said he doesn’t really care about the $25 Robinson owes him for the tape. But the story offered him a chance for self-promotion.
Last month, Money’s band, Trailer Park Orchestra, released a YouTube video for their song “The Lt. Governor Owes Me Money,” which is how news outlets were first tipped off to the story.
In the music video, an actor, wearing a dark suit and a poorly constructed costume that is supposed to be a Robinson mask, walks into an adult video store and engages in various antics with extras while Money and his band perform the song.
Robinson denies Money’s charges. Robinson campaign spokesperson Mike Lonergan told The Assembly that Money’s clams were “bullshit” and a “complete and total fiction.” He also called Money and The Assembly‘s reporters “degenerates.”
“This false and personal attack on my boss is complete fiction,” Lonergan wrote in response to the news outlet’s request for comment.
However, parts of Money’s account appear to be backed up by five other men who were former employees or customers of Gents Video and I-40 Video & News. They told The Assembly they remember Robinson visiting those two stores.
One former customer says Robinson — who worked for Papa Johns at the time — would arrive with pizza during his visits. A former employee of I-40 Video & News also recalled Robinson bringing in pizza for staff and “buddy[ing] up to everybody” at the store, even when he wasn’t renting videos.
Lonergan told The Assembly that Robinson knew the former video store clerk because “Money used to hang out at the Papa Johns where Mark Robinson worked in the ’90s and ask for free pizza, but that’s the extent of the relationship.”
Lonergan called Money a “freak show grifter” who had a “long history of criminal charges,” referring to nine misdemeanor drug charges and felony marijuana charges, all of which have been dropped or dismissed.
Money admitted to asking Robinson for “a free pizza here and there,” but rejects the Robinson campaign’s claims as false, noting that Papa Johns only had takeout and delivery.
“This is how you know that’s bullshit, because Papa Johns aren’t sit-down restaurants,” he told The Assembly. “There’s no place to hang out in there.”
Robinson claimed in his 2022 memoir, We Are the Majority, that he committed his life to Jesus in the late 1980s, but did not experience a “drastic conversion” or stop engaging in sinful behavior immediately afterward.
After struggling to pay the bills and juggling several jobs during the time when he is alleged to have visited the adult video stores — including a good-paying furniture manufacturing job that he claims was a casualty of Democratic President Bill Clinton’s signing of NAFTA into law — Robinson’s memoir details how he became more grounded in his faith.
His Christian faith, coupled with his conservative political beliefs, led him to become politically involved. Following a speech before the Greensboro City Council, in which he attacked attempts to pass gun-control reforms, Robinson became a conservative public speaker, being invited to speak at the National Rifle Association of America’s annual convention and growing his public profile.
In 2020, he used that profile to launch a successful bid for the position of North Carolina’s lieutenant governor, making history as the first Black person to ever hold the job.
As noted by New York Magazine, it is unlikely that the allegations of Robinson frequenting porn shops will hamper his campaign. While socially conservative Republicans have long advocated for the abolishment of pornography, evangelicals and other Republican-leaning groups are fiercely loyal to the GOP.
Additionally, the fact that the visits occurred decades ago lessens the sting of the accusations since Robinson has been vocal about his social conservatism and has used his position to speak out against content or social constructs that he deems “filth.”
Robinson’s alleged sinful behavior will likely only endear him to younger male voters who are increasingly distancing themselves from the Democratic Party. As New York Magazine notes, “In this decade, this exposé will instead likely help the candidate with the Barstool bro-vote.”
Watch Trailer Park Orchestra’s music video for “The Lt. Governor Owes Me Money” below. Trigger warning: Video is NSFW and may offend some audiences due to its adult content and racially insensitive material.
