United States Congressman Madison Cawthorn (R-North Carolina) has lost his bid to remain in office for another term in Tuesday’s primary election. He lost to Chuck Edwards who is a three-term GOP senator.
Cawthorn was narrowly defeated by Edwards attaining 33.4 percent of the total vote in North Carolina’s 11th Congressional District GOP primary. Cawthorn finished second with 31.9% of the vote, or approximately 1,300 less ballots than Edwards.
After it became clear that Edwards had not received enough votes, Cawthorn conceded Tuesday night to Edwards. Edwards will face off against the Democratic primary winner, Jasmine Beach-FerraraIn the general election in November, he will be representing Buncombe County as a Christian minister and commissioner.
Edwards’s win over Cawthorn, a devotee of former President Donald Trump who spoke at the January 6 “Stop the Steal” rally that preceded an attack on the U.S. Capitol by a mob of Trump loyalists, is being viewed as a victory for establishment Republicans who have expressed frustration with Cawthorn’s antics and controversial actions. Cawthorn’s loss was also commemorated on social media by progressives. Even though another conservative Republican may take his place in Washington, given Cawthorn’s extremist leanings, some progressives felt his elimination in the primaries was enough to warrant celebration.
In fact, a preview of some of the primary elections that took part last night can be found here Truthout’s William Rivers Pitt, senior editor and columnist briefly discussed what the North Carolina congressman’s loss might symbolize.
“Cawthorn’s defeat tonight would mean one less incoherent fascist in the House, another fine haircut down in the ditch of history,” Pitt wrote on Tuesday.
Cawthorn was involved in several scandals that have been well-documented. Cawthorn was cited this spring You can bring a loaded gun through airport security, for example — the second time in as many years that he’s done so. Cawthorn described Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy as a “thug” and derided his government for being both “evil” and “woke,” comments that upset members of his own party in the wake of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of that country. Cawthorn was also condemned by his fellow Republicans after he implied that Washington insiders had invited him to sex parties. In his 2020 presidential campaign Cawthorn had also lied about being accepted into the Naval Academy.
Despite these controversies, and many others, Trump doubled down on his endorsement of Cawthorn earlier this week, saying that the lawmaker deserved “a second chance.” The endorsement was likely due to Cawthorn’s continued loyalty to the former president, even after Trump’s loss in the 2020 presidential election.
Cawthorn used questionable language to stir up thousands of Trump loyalists at the rally outside Trump White House on January 6, 2021. telling them they “had some fight” in themThat and other things they should “lightly threaten” other lawmakersThey refused to attempt to reverse the election results. Cawthorn himself ended up voting against the certificationSeveral state electors are represented in the Electoral College.
Cawthorn’s loss may result in the ending of a legal challenge to his eligibility for office. A group of North Carolina voters, led by the group Free Speech for People, had argued that Cawthorn’s attempts to overturn the election had rendered him ineligible to run under the “insurrectionist clause” of the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
This challenge was rejected by a judge, however those voters appealed that decision last month. Now that Cawthorn isn’t able to run in the general election, that challenge may be rendered moot, although it could be raised again if he decides to run in future campaigns.
