BUSTED!: Black conservative NC governor candidate lived off government funding while criticizing public spending in campaign

(File this one in the "Don't-forget-where-you-came-from" folder)

SUMMARY AP: In his bid to become North Carolina’s first Black governor, Republican Mark Robinson assails government safety net spending as a “plantation of welfare and victimhood” that has mired generations of Black people in “dependency” and poverty. But the lieutenant governor’s political rise wouldn’t have been possible without it.

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By Mona Austin

Mark Robinson (R-NC), the first Black man to run for governor of North Carolina is eating his own words. Yolanda Hill has run a free lunch program through a non-profit organization she founded, Balanced Nutrition, solely funded by tax payers for years. The organization, has collected roughly $7 million in government funding under the state Department of Health and Human Services since 2017, while bankrolling the careers of Hill, Robinson and other members of their family. The business helped child care centers get federal funding. The AP broke the story citing a pay out of at least $830,000 in salaries from tax filings and state documents.

The AP quoted Robinson saying several times that his wife's company was sustaining the family and allowed him to campaign after leaving his job at the furniture factory. Robinson has criticized Blacks for depending liberal public spending and government safety nets.

“The Democratic Party is the party of welfare checks and dependency. The Republican Party is the party of freedom and opportunity,” Robinson wrote in his memoir.

Ironically, the lieutenant governor would not have climbed the political ranks without it.

In addition to showing the hypocrisy in Robinson's conservative values, the AP expose pointed to alleged campaign finance violations and "accounting irregularities" at Balanced Nutrition. Hill shut down the organization amid the scrutiny.