A string of incidents has led many to question whether the young Republican congressman from North Carolina was really ready for the job, Politico reported.
Madison Cawthorn became one of the youngest members of the House in history at the age of 25. Now, heading into his first reelection, Cawthorn is covered in controversy and facing a very likely possibility that his electoral career may end as quickly as it began.
Seven Republican challengers have lined up to try and take him out of next week’s primary on Tuesday, emboldened by his misdeeds, indiscretions, and controversies. The GOP Party leaders have abandoned him. Other big dogs in MAGA have kept their distance with an escalating storm of controversies.
He was once again stopped for driving with a revoked license. Airport security stopped him for trying to bring a gun onto a plane again. He made outlandish and unsubstantiated comments on an obscure podcast about orgies and cocaine use by colleagues on Capitol Hill. He said Ukrainian President Zelensky was a “thug.” He suggested Nancy Pelosi, who does not drink, is an alcoholic. There have been unsavory news about allegations of insider trading, pictures of shuttered district offices, leaked images and videos, and proof in FEC filings that he is a prodigious fundraiser but a profligate spender too. Multiple women in multiple places accuse him of sexual harassment. And there’s his role in the Jan. 6 insurrection. Not to mention a growing catalog of provocations on social media as well as on the House floor.
Polling shows that Madison Cawthorn is lagging behind but still remains in the lead. His closest competitor is Chuck Edwards, a state senator from the area who is backed by some of the most experienced strategists the state has to offer.
Cawthorn will require at least 30 percent of the vote to avoid a runoff. He is running out of money, therefore unable to run ads on local TV, and is barely campaigning.
Trump has not pulled his endorsement of Cawthorn yet. The former president’s endorsement may be crucial in clinching a second election for the young congressman. But whether Trump continues to endorse the candidate remains to be seen.
Cawthorn won 18,481 votes in the primary last time around, which is more than 1,000 votes than the candidate who finished third, which was enough to get a runoff, which he won. Experts say though that the reason he won is that he did not run as the person he has been since he won.
He cast himself with the standard identifiers of a conservative Christian Republican, focusing on freedom, liberty, and gun rights, standing against “socialists” and left “radicals.”
On Tuesday, he could very well win the primary. But people say politically he may have already lost.
But now, Sean Hannity said on his radio show the other day, “What is going on with him?” And said that he never likes to celebrate people’s decline or misery, and does not like to “pile on”, but that something is going on with Cawthorn, and it sounds like he needs “intervention or help.”
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