This story first appeared in the weekly WUNC Politics Podcast. Subscribe for free to get the newsletter every Friday from WUNC News Capitol Bureau Chief Colin Campbell.
Failed gubernatorial candidate and former Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson resurfaced last week, admitting in a podcast interview that he’d lied during the campaign and had indeed had “an obsession with pornography.”
The podcast appearance fueled speculation that Robinson might be testing a political comeback. And it made me curious about some loose ends from Robinson news I covered back in 2024.
I checked up on the $101,142 in misspent funds his family’s nonprofit, Balanced Nutrition, was ordered to repay to the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services in early 2025. A spokesperson for DHHS says they’re using a collections agency to try to get the money (with the latest attempt beginning this week), but so far Balanced Nutrition hasn’t repaid anything.
"No payment has been made to date," the agency said in an email to WUNC News. "NCDHHS submitted the balance owed to a collection agency on March 24, 2026. The account will remain with the collection agency for six months. If no funds are received during this time, the collection agency will return the account back to NCDHHS."
It’s not the only financial trouble for the Robinsons and Balanced Nutrition. American Express filed legal action against the nonprofit and its leader, Robinson’s wife Yolanda Hill, in January, seeking to recover more than $19,000 in unpaid credit card bills, according to court records.
Hill also faces legal action from the lender Sofi over $26,844 in debt from a personal loan she took out in 2023, court records show.
After shuttering the nonprofit that administered federal grants for food services in childcare facilities, Hill created an accounting firm last year. It’s unclear if Robinson has taken on a new job since leaving office, but his Facebook page is full of memes and videos of the former lieutenant governor weighing in on politics, along with frequent pitches to subscribe to his posts for 99 cents-per-month.
He said in January 2025 that he had no plans to seek elected office again, but he never closed his campaign account. Records show he spent $97,000 from the campaign account in the second half of 2025, including $50,000 for “political analytics” and payments to four different law firms.
One of those “legal fees” payments in September went to the Florida-based consulting firm of his post-scandal campaign manager Matt Hurley. Hurley, incidentally, owns the media start-up behind Robinson’s new podcast appearance.
Hurley’s firm also worked during the primary for Seth Woodall’s N.C. House campaign. Woodall unseated Republican Rep. Reece Pyrtle in Rockingham County, a sidebar to the Phil Berger-Sam Page race there.
Speaking of Page and Berger, election records show Robinson lives in that Senate district and voted in the primary. Who he voted for is a mystery, as he doesn’t appear to have weighed in on the race in his social media posts.
