Whatever Happened To This Guy?

 

Former NC-11 Congressman Madison Cawthorn now lives in Florida. He achieved his personal best in defying the law on September 25 when he got himself arrested for failure to show up in court to face 2024 charges of driving with a suspended or revoked license.

Just incidentally, he had already announced that he will be running for the open US House seat in Florida being vacated by Byron Donalds, who's running for governor. It's a safe Republican district (natch!) but already has a crowded Republican primary field including candidates with no arrest record.

And Reese Gorman just reported in The Assembly that Cawthorn has become persona non grata even in the Trump White House:

Once a MAGA poster child, Cawthorn is attempting a political comeback, but he shouldn’t expect any help from those in President Donald Trump’s orbit.

“No way,” one source close to Trump told NOTUS when asked whether Cawthorn would get the backing of the president and his circle.

Well, guess there's not always an Act 2 in politics. 

 

The Return of Col. Moe Davis

 

In 2020, retired Air Force Col. Morris "Moe" Davis attracted a good deal of attention running in the Democratic primary for the 11th Congressional District and then in the fall election that year against that vivid train wreck, Madison Cawthorn. Cawthorn won the race by 12 points, but Davis brought some Democratic heat and raised a respectable $2.5 million for his campaign.

He says he's back for 2026, running for the same seat now occupied by Chuck Edwards, the former state senator who ousted Cawthorn in the 2022 Republican primary.

Davis ran a combative (some nervous liberals thought too combative) campaign against Cawthorn, highlighting the post-teenager's moral and ethical black holes. (Full disclosure: I contributed more than once to Davis's campaign.) Davis retired from the US Air Force at the rank of colonel and already had a high pre-candidacy national profile. He served two years as Chief Prosecutor of the Military Commissions at Guantanamo Bay and resigned in protest because his superiors in the Air Force Judiciary and the General Counsel of the Department of Defense overruled his decision to disallow evidence obtained via CIA torture. In resigning his position, Davis declared that he wasn't going to take orders from people who think "waterboarding is A-Okay."

In other words, he's a hard-nose with a spine. He's got a clear pattern of courting controversy, or at least not skirting around it when it blocks his path of moral certitude (he said the Supreme Court was "meddling" when it chose to review the Military Commissions Act). He's not afraid to defy authority when he thinks he's right, and you've got to admire his fortitude. He's been on all the broadcast and cable news programs as a recognized expert in national security, especially security from terrorists who he thinks should be prosecuted the fair way and not via the CIA torture wheel, but he's also defended Guantanamo as a "humane" detention center (which makes him suspicious to some liberals).

He was a "risk" candidate in 2020, at a time when too many Democrats wanted "safe." But times have changed, and more Democrats are in a fighting mood and want their candidates served raw. Cory Vaillancourt points out that in 2020 Davis actually polled best in the rural counties of CD11. And the incumbent looks weakened after Hurricane Helene ravaged his district, and the Trump admin hasn't done much to bolster Edwards' popularity. Vaillancourt:

Edwards has increasingly come under scrutiny for his performance while in office, most notably in failing to acquire the $60 billion North Carolina says it needs to recover from Hurricane Helene. A bill Edwards claims he authored last December will instead deliver between $9 billion and $17 billion; however, a Smoky Mountain News investigation in March revealed that most local governments hadn’t yet received any money from the federal government six months after the storm.

In a March 13 town hall, Edwards faced fierce opposition. During his speech to delegates at the NC-11 GOP convention on April 26, Edwards touted his proximity to Trump on nearly every issue, claimed “we’re winning” and mocked Democrats.

I'm up for a Moe Davis/Chuck Edwards contest.

 

The Inevitable Return of the Bad Penny

 

After pleading guilty last Friday to bringing a loaded gun into Douglas International Airport in Charlotte, former Congressman Madison Cawthorn had only cheerful, upbeat things to say about his likely future in politics, at which no one was heard to shout "Amen!"

“I enjoy the position I’m in now,” Cawthorn said, meaning rich and well supplied with expensive cigars.

Cawthorn added, “The world really is the oyster for the young. I think I’ll return to politics one day. I love the country too much to sit on the sidelines forever. You need to get involved in politics or be destined to be ruled by lesser men,” 

Anyone who manages to get "lesser" than Cawthorn is truly a contortionist. And he doesn't know when to shut up.

He’s leaving the decision about getting back into politics “up to just whatever God has intended for me. I’m an ardent follower of Christ, so wherever he leads me, I’m happy to go. I’m happy to answer the call whenever.”

People who talk about being called by God usually have a downward trajectory.

Her Felony Sentencing Will Come on June 20

 

On her Facebook page before the 2020 Republican primary in the NC11, which she ultimately lost to Madison Cawthorn, Lynda Bennett gave herself these tags: "Pro Trump. Pro Gun. Pro Life. Committed Christian Conservative Woman."

But now this (hattip: News&Observer):

The candidate who former Rep. Mark Meadows handpicked to replace him in Congress, after he became former President Donald Trump’s chief of staff, pleaded guilty in federal court Wednesday to a campaign finance charge. 

Lynda Bennett, 65, of Maggie Valley, appeared in federal court in Washington, D.C., accused of knowingly taking $25,000 from a relative and doing so in another person’s name. 

Federal authorities said Bennett borrowed $25,000 from a family member, saying she needed the money for personal expenses because she had to spend so much on her own campaign, then deposited the money into her personal account and loaned a total of $80,000, including the $25,000, to her campaign. She did not report that it was a third-party contribution, and the amount far exceeded the $2,800-per-election limit set by federal law and just crossed the threshold to make it a felony charge. 

Bennett pleaded guilty to accepting contributions in the name of another person.

Scofflaw Punk Goes To Court Today Over Gun Charge

 

Ex-Congressman Madison Cawthorn's lawyers are due in a Mecklenburg County courtroom this morning to answer the charge that last April their client brought a loaded 9 mm Staccato handgun in his carry-on and tried to board a flight at Douglas International Airport with it. 

Not the first time Mr. Cawthorn pulled that stunt. He had been caught by the TSA with a Glock 9 mm in his carry-on trying to get on a flight in Asheville in July of 2021. That gun was unloaded at the time, but his bag did contain a loaded magazine. The Glock was confiscated but was later returned to Cawthorn.

Appears that $15,000 might be the maximum possible fine for this second infraction. 

Virginia Foxx, Measurably Worse Than Madison Cawthorn

 

Rep. Madison Cawthorn (of grateful memory) missed 45 votes in the US House during this Congressional term just ending.

Rep. Virginia Foxx missed 58 votes, making her Number Two for missed votes, Rep. Ted Budd (now Senator Budd to our considerable chagrin) being Numero Uno at 122 missed votes.

(Source: News and Observer)

Now, what do you think she was doing instead of her job?

Madison Cawthorn Sued By His Own Lawyers

 

In January 2022, Congressman Madison Cawthorn hired the James Bopp law firm of Indiana to defend him against charges that he was not eligible to run for reelection on the basis of having participated in insurrection against the government. Bopp is one of the most prominent conservative election lawyers in the country.

With Bopp's help, in March a U.S. District Judge ruled in Cawthorn’s favor and prevented the North Carolina State Board of Elections from looking into whether he should be on the ballot for the 2022 primary in May. The plaintiffs in the case appealed the ruling to the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Virginia. The appeals court ultimately reversed the ruling and sent the case back to the district court, where the Bopp attorneys moved to have the case “dropped as moot.” 

The Bopp law firm is now suing Cawthorn for not paying them for seven separate invoices totaling $193,296.85. 

It ain't cheap, hiring big-time conservative lawyers, especially when you're known as a media elite with the ability to raise lots of loose cash. But the media spigot appears to have been cut off.

How I Became a Man To Be Feared

Always concerned about the healthy future of man-kind, Madison Cawthorn gave his farewell speech on the floor of the US House, and I can't help feeling that he was aiming his words directly at me:

“It used to be a rite of passage in this country for young men to be punched in the face when they did something stupid. Our nation used to believe that there was strength and purpose in taking the hits, learning from your mistakes and growing through the adversity,” Cawthorn said.

“America is weak. Her sons are sickly, and her daughters are decrepit,” he continued. “Our country now faces the consequences of enabling a participation trophy society. We’re no longer the United States. We’ve become the nanny state. Our young men are taught that weakness is a strength, that delicacy is desirable, and that being a soft metrosexual is more valuable than training the mind, body and soul.”

“I ask the young men of this nation a question,” Cawthorn said. “Will you sit behind a screen while the storied tales of your forefathers become myth? Or will you stand resolute against the dying light of America’s golden age? Will you reclaim your masculinity? Will you become a man to be feared? To be respected? To be looked up to? Or will you let this nation’s next generation be its final generation?”

Well shit! This wise man, this man's man, has seen me for what I am, even though he's never seen me. How many ounces of my precious bodily fluid have I allowed to dry up while getting my hair styled, my nails cured, my body sculpted? How much money have I wasted on "product." So I went out immediately and bought a bullwhip -- took a while to find a vender for that one! -- and a good 7-inch fixed blade fighting knife (I was shopping on line, so I impulsively threw into my cart a Benchmade Infidel Dagger switchblade for a mere $450). I am equipped! (Even if it's going to take a few more washings to get that perm out of my hair.)

I started kicking sleeping dogs, if they were someone else's dogs. My own is being retrained for combat, and I darsn't. I'm currently shopping for a big-ass overpowering truck with an armored cab, and I've begun to hang out where the tough guys are, at stampedes and rodeos and cigar-tastings.

I don't take no backtalk from women, either, especially the "decrepit" younger ones who are always posing for selfies anyway, and you can get almost anything past them. I eat my meat raw. I think I might now have become a man feared, because I notice more people avoiding me.

Thank you, Madison, for showing us The Way -- all the weak ones.

Losers Who Become Invisible Men

 

I hate kicking him as he exits, but as Madison Cawthorn became our own 15-minute celebrity, we have to keep up his history.

Photo Jabin Botsford, in the WashPost

The news is not too surprising: He's disappeared from the job that he's supposed to continue to function in for two more months. He's missed a bunch of votes and used proxies some 86 times to vote in his name (something that oughta not be allowed --we're paying those guys very well to show up to work), he's pretty much moved out of his congressional office space, he's closed all but one of his regional offices (and even then, his rep is only answering calls about on-going constituent complaints or requests; don't bother calling if you've got a brand new problem), and he hasn't been seen in his western North Carolina district since the primary.

Sarah Pequeno reports in the NandO: 

He has always struggled with constituent services, but all but one of his local offices are closed, and his main Hendersonville office is only tackling existing constituent services cases. When calling his office as a non-constituent, you are rerouted to Congress’s call center. When calling as a constituent without a pending case, the phones route you to a voicemail for the Hendersonville office. Only when saying I was a constituent with an active case was I able to speak with an actual human on the other line.

On October 6, Pequeno reports, Cawthorn was supposed to speak at a Duplin County GOP banquet — but he missed it in favor of spending time in Florida, where, just incidentally, he recently purchased a million dollar pad in Cape Coral. Pequeno tried but couldn't uncover whether Cawthorn had even voted in NC last week. Those records will be publicly available eventually.

Pequeno's closing shot: "Cawthorn’s fall from grace among the Republican party was swift and permanent, so it isn’t entirely surprising that he went into hiding. It is, however, disappointing. Whatever he pursues next, hopefully he can find the time to be more present."

*The Madison Cawthorn Campaign Is Broke And Owes A Bunch of Money

“Nobody ever did the math, which baffled me because the spending was so outrageous.”

--Madison Cawthorn campaign staffer, anonymously  

Yesterday, The Daily Beast published an exclusive, dishing inside dirt on Congressman Madison Cawthorn's current bind, details ferreted out by reporter Roger Sollenberger.

Sollenberger talked to a Cawthorn campaign insider who wanted the public to know that Cawthorn had illegally spent money he now can't pay back. Some high-dollar donors are due a refund under law (explained below), but no way can he make those refunds.  Cawthorn owes individual donors $220,080.85, and as of May 5, he has only $137,000 on hand. He also owes $325,000 to various vendors.

The FEC allows donors to max-out double what the law ordinarily allows for individual donors -- a max of $2,900 for the primary, same for the General -- presuming that the candidate advances to the General. Cawthorn didn't. Under the law he must refund those funds designated for the General: 

...a candidate who loses the primary (or otherwise does not participate in the general election) does not have a separate limit for the general. If a candidate accepts contributions for the general election before the primary is held and loses the primary (or does not otherwise participate in the general election), the candidate’s principal campaign committee must refund, redesignate or reattribute the general election contributions within 60 days of the primary....

--Federal Election Commission, rules on contribution limits

Must.  You can't wait for someone to file a formal complaint. Within 60 days (deadline for Cathorn was up last Saturday, July 16), he was required to refund the $220K. Evidently, he didn't, and the campaign is already liable for being a week late (as of yesterday, July 22) filing the quarterly FEC report.

Photo Nell Redmond (AP)

And yes, I do note that there are two other lawful outs in the FEC rule above -- "redesignation or reattribution," whatever those words mean, which I scarcely understand and refuse to take time for right now. You can count on Cawthorn's most ardent supporters to forgive the debt (though I don't see where "forgiveness" is allowed by law. Incidentally, does it seem to you that the FEC's double-max-out rule is a pretty open temptation for candidates to rob their own banks?)

Never mind the FEC. Back to Cawthorn:

This person [the Sollenberger source] pointed to a spree of frivolous charges over the last year that all accelerated into 2022, such as $1,500 in “egregiously” frequent trips to Chick-Fil-A, almost $3,000 at a place called Papa’s Beer, three separate charges at a high-end cigar shop, $21,000 for lodging in Florida and—the biggest drain—hundreds of thousands of dollars in sky-high consulting and fundraising fees, including for Cawthorn’s friend and campaign manager, Blake Harp, who was drawing a salary beyond federal limits....

The campaign also failed to pay several vendors on time, according to two people with direct knowledge of the agreements. [2nd Sollenberger source!]

Cawthorn knew the law and willingly crossed the line:

Cawthorn couldn’t raise money to offset this burn rate, which was so high that, by May 5 [2022], the campaign had just 2 percent of the $3.7 million it had raised since January 2021. In truth, the source said, the campaign had been forced to tap its general election account months ago.

The 60-day clock for refunds began the day Cawthorn lost his primary. It ended over a week ago on July 16.

Also on July 16, Cawthorn's treasurer, who could also under law be liable for the money, resigned and Cawthorn actually designated himself as his own treasurer (didn't know that was legal!) and as his own "custodian of records" (FEC document).

That's some pinch hit. Lordy, the crack that Madison's ass is caught in.

Duh Conclusions

1. Madison Cawthorn is a teenager lacking wisdom.

2. The inside staffer spilling beans to Roger Sollenberger is most likely the hired treasurer who resigned last Saturday. Hence, the highly specific sums reported in the article.

3. The maddest people owed money will be the vendors, the consultants, the operatives who haven't been paid.

4. The FEC can presumably go after Cawthorn's private millions to pay off the debt. The campaign treasurer can also be liable -- another reason for his resignation? He/she was a hired hand, not an insider, not a personal friend, with no particular loyalty to a man who acted like a boy.

5. The obvious fix would be a high concept fundraiser with star power -- "Help Madison Cawthorn Survive the Leftist Assault!!" Such "Help Retire the Debt" fundraisers also have to operate under strict FEC regs.

*Titled corrected 

No Hope that NC Republicans Become Human Beings

The U.S. House just passed a bill, 267 to 157, that would formally repeal the Defense of Marriage Act, the 1996 law against same-sex marriage that was overturned in the Supreme Court landmark Obergefell decision. It would require states to reciprocally recognize marriages that are legal in other states as valid, and would prohibit discrimination under state law in public acts against married couples based on their race, sex, ethnicity, or national origin.

All of the Republicans representing North Carolina voted against it. Specifically...

Dan Bishop (N.C.)

Ted Budd (N.C.)

Madison Cawthorn (N.C.)

Virginia Foxx (N.C.)

Richard Hudson (N.C.)

Patrick McHenry (N.C.)

Greg Murphy (N.C.)

David Rouzer (N.C.)

Astounding, that these "freedom-lovers" and "-defenders" are willing to sacrifice the rights of fellow citizens to satisfy -- what? -- religious fundamentalism and the dictates of an ideology that intends to punish difference. I would say these guys are going to hell, except they're already there. 

Madison Cawthorn Is Finished

 

Otherwise, Trump-endorsed candidates in North Carolina did well, proving once again that the NCGOP is too far gone to save. But Cawthorn's meteoric rise and sudden fall is pretty much complete, though he has months still to spend in office embarrassing himself and the rest of us. 

Cawthorn did crack the magic 30% threshold, taking 31.90% of the vote, but state Senator Chuck Edwards did better with 33.40%. The much-ballyhooed moderate woman Wendy Nevarez, promoted as the antidote to Cawthorn by the Democratic founders of the American Muckrakers PAC, just got 10% and came in 7th of 8 candidates. Maybe she'd like to switch parties to some group where she'd be more appreciated.

On the Democratic side of the 11th CD, Jasmine Beach-Ferrara blew away all competitors, taking almost 60% of the vote in a crowded field. Katie Dean, for whom I felt some enthusiasm, came in second with 25.70% of the total vote.

Is Katie Dean Rising in the DemPrimary for CD11?

 

I've had kind of a crush on Katie Dean since I first watched her campaign video (YouTube), and not the kind of crush old white men are known for, but a political crush, because I thought she "fit" the 11th Congressional District better than the other candidates and that her candidacy could catch fire and roll over all expectations and win.

I wanted to interview her a month ago and proposed an email exchange, but I never heard back from her. Either the message didn't get through, or my being cut out of the 11th CD -- after being led astray into false hope by a map that drew Watauga into Maddy Cawthorn's district -- so my opinion didn't matter any more. Plus who the hell is this guy at WataugaWatch anyway?

I wanted to probe Dean's working-class perspective, what her knee-jerks sound like, and whether there was any good reason I couldn't support her as a "moderate" Democrat. I've done it before, plenty. Though I like radicals, I'll vote for any Democrat over most Republicans because party does mean something most of the time. The Republican Party is a horror show. The Democratic Party is a trainwreck -- going off the rails trying to accomplish something idealistic. Take your pick. I have.

Anyway, and though I can't vote for Katie Dean or anyone else in the 11th, I'm watching her apparent rise (maybe?). People I respect and who have run as Democrats for public office have endorsed Dean -- Moe Davis, who ran for the 11th in 2020 (I contributed to his campaign) and David Wheeler who ran for the NC Senate in 2018 against mastodon Ralph Hise and wasn't afraid to take a lance to that immense mammal. Wheeler lost. But he has some street-fighter in him, and so does Moe Davis, and I approve of that. Together Davis and Wheeler have come out strong for Katie Dean under the aegis of FireMadison.com, a social media gadfly that has never for a second let up on Cawthorn.

Davis and Wheeler make the argument that Heath Shuler ought to have taught us something, for Heath Shuler was the last Democrat to win the district and he was a moderate notorious moderate with a conservative streak that outraged the activists in Asheville. Outraged me too. But he was better than Mark Meadows turned out to be, so party does matter and I ain't no purist.

Katie Dean is the only working-class gal running, with auto grease under her fingertips -- owns a successful auto repair business, can put a timing belt on a GMC. It's that and the obvious intelligence of an accomplished woman who studied how to design municipal infrastructure and has a degree in environmental engineering and who once declined anesthetic for repairing a broken collar bone because she couldn't afford insurance -- all that would make me vote for her too.

For Trump-Boy Bo Hines, First, It Was Virginia Foxx

 

In 2020 Bo Hines, a once-upon-a-time NCSU football star (for one season) but in 2020 an aspiring student in the Wake Forest School of Law, must have watched the fulminating rise of Madison Cawthorn with some envy and said to himself, "I could do that too!" Because, actually he's several centiles smarter than Cawthorn, and knows it. Subsequently, because he's so smart, he hopscotched all over North Carolina looking for just the right congressional district where he could wow 'em with his hard-edged Trumpist ventriloquism and Cawthorn good looks, and he finally landed his candidacy in the new, newer, newest CD13, about 200 miles from his Winston-Salem residence. Make no mistake: He has not only the time-stamp of Trump but also the explicit and florid endorsement of Trump. Just look at the graphics on both his Facebook and his Twitter pages. We also note just in passing and by way of essential taxonomy, he's a hang-out-with-Matt-Gaetz type of guy.

That's the 13th CD in bright green, southern Wake, Johnston, and parts of Harnett and Wayne

But First, He Was Running Against Virginia Foxx

He launched what promised to be a delicious primary campaign against Foxx in January 2021 with a video posted to his Twitter and Facebook. His criticism of Foxx, more implied than explicitly stated, was that she had mainly made herself rich in Congress and had done little for her constituents other than the disaster of a pork-barrel teapot museum which didn't come about. Ouch. His condo in Winston-Salem was not in Foxx's 5th CD at the time (but Hines has never let actual residence stand in the way of his ambition).

Bo Hines made a publicized visit with Young Republicans at AppState in April 2021, campaigning against Foxx obviously, and almost immediately -- and to our amazement -- Foxx announced that Madison Cawthorn had endorsed her for reelection ... herself, Virginia Foxx, the 70-something battle-axe who can cry on cue and not the 20-something fellow aggressive male conservative that you might think Cawthorn would gravitate to. (Cawthorn did later develop a political crush on Hines, but in April of 2021, Foxx got to him first.)

By the first week of May 2021, Hines had reconsidered. Maybe it wasn't wise to challenge a fellow Republican incumbent. He had looked around. Ted Budd was stepping down from his 13th CD seat to run for the Senate, so that open district (which also didn't include Hines's condo) looked more ripe for the taking. On May 8th, 2021, Dallas Woodhouse reported that Hines was moving his candidacy to the old 13th, which still at that time looked like this (it's the one in gray, gerrymandered for Ted Budd):

Woodhouse was not critical of Hines in his reporting. He became very critical of Cawthorn.

Bo Hines, Opportunist

Between the congressional map of North Carolina's 13 Congressional districts we used in 2020 (the map immediately above) and the eventual court-ordered map we're now functioning under (seen at the top of this column), the Republican overlords in the NC General Assembly arrived at their own redraw-of-infamy early in December of 2021, which landed with a thud and looked like this below (infamous for the Foxx finger into Watauga) and would become Hines's new playground for district shopping:

Most of the 13th CD where Hines had newly announced had now become a new 7th CD (in bright yellow above), so Bo Hines was mulling what to do and so was Mark Walker, who was also considering changing his plans for the US Senate for a run in the 7th to get back into Congress. Meanwhile, the Club for Growth endorsed Hines for whatever district he chose to run in (not kidding), and Trump came calling, promising to endorse Hines if he'd pick the 4th CD instead and leave the 7th open for Walker (in order to get Walker out of the way for Ted Budd's race for the Senate). The 4th CD, where Trump and incidentally Cawthorn both wanted Hines to land, was farther east yet from Hines's residence.

Law suits and judgments ensued. The map at the top of this column became law, and Hines chose the new 13th, for rationales and consideration (and math?) we may never know. But Hines becomes a featured speaker (and Trump-blessed candidate) at Trump's rally tomorrow in Johnston County in the heart of the new 13th, an anointing that some think will propel Hines past Renee Ellmers (also trying to get back into Congress), his chief rival in an 8-candidate primary.

But the Trump blessing has not papered over Hines's carpetbag for all the Republicans in the new 13th. The Johnston County Republican Men's Club has come out against Hines, and perhaps other Republican  voters are noticing how far from home the boy has roamed.

Pat McCrory, Going Guilt-By-Association

 

Pat McCrory (at least) thinks Madison Cawthorn is now an anchor around Ted Budd's neck. That's either ballsy or a suicidal misreading of where the NCGOP is right now.

Kevin McCarthy Has Had Enough of Madison Cawthorn

 

Implicating fellow Republican Congesspersons as sex-orgy-attending deviants is the line you apparently don't cross in Washington, and Madison Cawthorn crossed it. So Republican Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy ordered Cawthorn into his office for an official paddling. And Cawthorn showed up. The photo of his leaving McCarthy's office yesterday suggests to some observers that the 26-year-old had been crying.

The backlash [against Cawthorn had been] remarkably swift. There was even talk about kicking Cawthorn out of the conservative House Freedom Caucus. Multiple members suggested publicly that a reprimand and an apology would be insufficient, and that Cawthorn needed to get specific if he was going to tell salacious tales.

“You should have to name names if you are going to go make those kinds of brushstroke accusations and impugn the character of people in this institution or … anybody else in this town,” an anonymous Republican told Politico. (Aaron Blake, reporting in the WashPost)

Sounding like the scourge of God Himself, Rep. Steve Womack (R-Ark.) said, “He’ll need to be careful, because eventually he’ll be judged.”

Womack even alluded to wanting Cawthorn out, as in out of office: “If it’s: ‘Hey, don’t do that, again,’ we’ve been there. Frankly, if western North Carolina is not going to fix the problem, then leadership will have to.”

If western North Carolina is not going to fix the problem ... like, in the upcoming May 17th Republican primary, where Republican state lawmaker and primary challenger Chuck Edwards (only one of many in the primary) has earned himself the endorsement of both Phil Berger and Tim Moore (who are headlining a fundraiser for Edwards), along with Sen. Thom Tillis's endorsement. If Republicans coalesce around a single challenger in the 11th CD, they can indeed "fix the problem" of Madison Cawthorn (an outcome I've never much believed could happen but which is looking more likely).

Thom Tillis Has Had Enough of Madison Cawthorn

 

Congressman Madison Cawthorn said some new things on camera the other day.

He affirmed that Washington, DC, is like the TV series "House of Cards" and said people that he’s looked up to his whole life, who are now in their 60’s or 70’s, have invited him to an orgy at their home and others have done cocaine in front of him.

This led Senator Thom Tillis to unload on Cawthorn to reporter Manu Raju (Twitter thread):

“I thought about the statement, if it’s true, then he’s got a lot of information to reveal. If it’s not true, then he’s guilty of being untruthful.”

Tillis adds: “I thought it was a silly statement and it’s not the first one.” Is Cawthorn a problem? “At the end of the day, people in the district are going to have to vote for him and I would ask them to look at his record and ask what has he done since he’s been here.”

Tillis: “What is his track record of working on tough issues and what’s he done for the western part of the state.” Asked for his assessment whether Cawthorn had accomplished much in his first term, Tillis said, “Not a lot in my opinion.”

 

Update on Candidate Filings: Cawthorn Back in the 11th

 

Michele Woodhouse at the
CPAC convention

Madison Cawthorn moved his candidate filing from the 13th (old news) back to his original stomping grounds. He has a bunch of primary opponents, but so far, no Michele Woodhouse, though if you look at her Facebook page you'd see her running hard for darling of CPAC. She has until this Friday at noon to get her name on the ballot.

Whether or not Woodhouse gets in, the odds are still tilted in Cawthorn's favor, since the anti-Cawthorn vote is going to be split up among at least five others. Unless Cawthorn can't get to 30% of the primary vote and he has to face just one of those Republican challengers in a run-off.

Incidentally, the challenge to Cawthorn's eligibility went away when the new map was adopted, because his challengers no longer live in the affected district. Remains to be seen whether voters in the new 11th CD will refile the challenge based on the insurrection clause in the 14th Amendment.

Meanwhile, Madam Virginia Foxx has two Republican primary challengers -- Michael Ackerman, who's been a leader in the anti-masking show of force in front of the Watauga School Board; and Adina Safta (photo below), who actually lives in Raleigh. What's her deal? So far as I can tell, she has no campaign presence on Twitter or Facebook, no campaign website that I can find, and she wasted her opportunity on Ballotpedia, responding to their candidate survey questionnaire while managing to say precisely nothing of substance. She does use the word "freedom" a lot.

Salute to a Western NC Republican Moderate

 

Wendy Nevarez with Adam Kinzinger

Wendy Nevarez has been running the longest to unseat Madison Cawthorn. She filed with the Federal Elections Commission on April 7th last year, the first of a slew of Republicans who subsequently declared they would also challenge Cawthorn in the 11th CD primary. That's how odorous the boy congressman has made himself.

Background: Nevarez spent 2001-2017 as a Petty Officer First Class in the US Navy, works now as a claims specialist for the Social Security Administration. Earned a Master's in public administration. Pulled a Republican ballot in every primary in Buncombe County, except in 2016 when she pulled the Democratic one. Trump turned her stomach.

So can you think of a more improbable Republican candidate? Against Madison Cawthorn? In the R+infinity District 11 of the North Carolina western mountains? Nah. But she's been a bright presence, active on social media as a kind of beacon for other Republican women who couldn't and still can't stand Trump, who want comity and commonsense for problem-solving -- few as that class of Republican woman may be in the western mtns. The votes Nevarez ends up getting on May 17th -- however few -- will be the targets the Democratic standard-bearer will need November 8th. (A possible Democratic flip in the west became a pleasing prospect for awhile, back during the months Watauga got lumped in with Asheville. But no more. It was widely rumored that Cawthorn poached Tim Moore's custom-fit 13th CD next door because he couldn't stand the prospect of all those college students voting against him. Who needs all those smarter-than-Thou teenagers screaming at you?)

So Wendy Nevarez's chances notwithstanding, I can't help being proud of her. I wrote last September that she'd make an excellent conservative Southern Democrat.

She's getting batted around pretty bad right now by the Trumpists because of that photo above. Nevarez attended Rep. Adam Kinzinger's CountryFirst (dot.com) convention. You know Kinzinger, the Republican from Illinois who voted to impeach Trump and who is one of the "terrible two" Republicans participating in the January 6th investigation. Going to his convention and getting that photo kind of makes Nevarez a bad-ass to boot.

Tried to count all the Republicans filed in the old/new 11th. Hard to do at the moment, because some candidates filed in what they thought would be the 14th CD, and some (like Josh Remillard) stalked Cawthorn to the new 13th. And some are in the original 11th (along with Virginia Foxx, who thought that was her new bunk). In other words there are candidates filed all over the place. They have until noon on March 4 to sort it out.

Meanwhile, no one knows what Madison Cawthorn will do. He looks blocked every direction. The 13th -- where's he's actually filed currently -- is no longer attractive. Back in the 11th, which he abandoned for greener pastures, he's already endorsed Michele Woodhouse, a marketer of vagina rejuvenation (?) --she billed herself as the "Vagina Road Warrior." Anyway, Cawthorn, a judge of horse flesh, handpicked her to succeed him -- and contributed to her campaign. She might graciously step aside for him, since as of this morning she isn't listed as a candidate on the NCSBE data for candidate filings under the maps ordered by the NC Supremes. But even if she dropped out, that hardly clears the field for Cawthorn.

Comms Dir. Luke Ball

He'll still face current frontrunner Chuck Edwards in the May primary. Edwards is a fast food merchandizer and state senator who represents Buncombe, Henderson, and Transylvania counties. He's said to be a strong contender to win it all. Pisgah Inn host Bruce O'Connell is also running, also essentially as a Trumpist, and he has a shit-ton of personal money he's willing to spend. He's a businessman contemptuous of Cawthorn's juvenile need for constant attention. Rod Honeycutt, an Army colonel, has been actively campaigning, and his military background is going to be attractive to some, though he seems somewhat moderate to me -- no advocate for Trump -- though not as moderate as Wendy Nevarez. 

Both Cawthorn and his Director of Communications (and messaging mastermind) Luke Ball have had no comment about where Cawthorn will land -- which district -- or if he'll land at all. Background on Ball (since he's clearly calling the shots for Cawthorn): He rose in Trumpist campaign ranks to become Matt Gaetz's comms guy until he couldn't take all the sex scandals. He resigned "amid allegations that Gaetz had an inappropriate sexual encounter with a minor and a reported investigation into alleged violations of federal sex trafficking laws." Ball got immediately snatched up by Cawthorn (with his own sexual predator rep), who most certainly is too a great judge of horse flesh. Only question is who's the jockey in this scenario. 

With a team like that, you could sure organize a kegger.

New Maps Now in the Hands of the Courts

 

Tim Moore

The new maps for the NC House got bipartisan support. The new maps for US congressional seats and NC Senate didn't.

The Republican map-drawers in Raleigh took Watauga out of what was to be the new 14th CD, thus making it more attractive for Madison Cawthorn to stay home and run again in what is still (for the moment) the 11th CD. That edit also made it possible for House Speaker Tim Moore to reconsider whether he might run in the new district that covers his home county of Cleveland. Bottomline: He's back in, you bet, if Cawthorn stays home.

Oh the times! Oh the customs!