OPINION: This article contains commentary which may reflect the author’s opinion
Madison Cawthorn was set to become a young Republican rising star of the Gen-Z generation.
In 2021, Cawthorn was voted into the House of Representatives, the youngest Republican to ever be elected to that post at age 25, which is the minimum age requirement to sit in the House.
During the campaign for that seat, some scandal followed young Cawthorn, and rumors were not helped by his own statements at the time.
He made claims as to unseemly activity in Washington, but later House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy told reporters that Cawthorn has admitted his claims were exaggerated or untrue.
Previous scandals included allegations of sexual harassment and racist statements, making some false statements, and questionable social media posts.
During the spring primary, Cawthorn was charged with bringing a weapon to an airport, made his questionable statements about Washington, suffered allegations of insider trading, and was shown in photos wearing women’s lingerie.
Some Republican voters remained behind Cawthorn, citing his backbone and outspokenness as needed in government.
And some were chalking up his mistakes to his inexperience, such as former President Donald Trump who stated that the young congressman “had made some foolish mistakes, which I don’t believe he’ll make again” and deserved a second chance.
Finally, the repeated instances were just too many and his primary opponent won the endorsement of a prominent Republican, Senator Tom Tillis, R-N.C. who declared Cawthorn “has fallen well short of the most basic standards Western North Carolina expects from their representatives.”
Tillis and established Republican Party members threw their support toward Cawthorn’s opponent, Chuck Edwards.
Edwards was able to win the seat, beating Cawthorn by a slim 1,500 votes.
Cawthorn conceded defeat on election night in May after millions of outside dollars and North Carolina donations were used to take him down.
By that time he had raised nearly $3.7 million since the campaign began in January 2021.
The most recent filing through late April, from weeks before his May 17 primary, shows the one-term congressman’s re-election bid severely underwater.
Through that time the campaign was also late on payments to multiple vendors, according to Friday’s report.
And his deadline to pay back his general election donors reportedly flew by more than a week ago.
It seems all is not in order with Cawthorn’s campaign fund.
The outgoing representative spent hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign donations that he was required to refund after losing his primary race, it was reported on Friday night.
Over the last year, the 26-year-old congressman’s campaign indiscriminately spent funds that were meant to go toward his general election race in November, according to the Daily Beast, which is a violation of the Federal Election Commission’s rules.
He was not meant to access the funds after losing his seat to North Carolina state senator Chuck Edwards at the end of a scandal-plagued campaign that was opposed by members of his own party.
“In practice, many people may start spending this money in the primary and pay it back; it’s a risk, but it may not be uncommon,” a leader at ethics watchdog Common Cause told Daily Beast.
But Cawthorn still needs to now pay it back, whether it’s his own personal cash or soliciting more donations.
There are other options that are allowed.
A source in the report said one option was mounting another campaign and funneling the money into that, which would not run afoul of campaign finance laws.
But that same source also said the outgoing congressman ‘didn’t want to run.’
A source stated that as the money came in, it just as quickly went out.
“There was just no money,” a campaign source told the Daily Beast. “It was dollar-in, dollar-out.”
“Nobody ever did the math, which baffled me because the spending was so outrageous.”
The numbers clearly show that there is money missing, which had been used in error of the laws governing campaign donations.
The Cawthorn for NC campaign committee ended with $137,598.90 on hand, while owing a debt of $324,566.02, the filing dated April 1 to April 27 reads.
The report states that he now owes $220,000 to some of his biggest donors, including the campaign coffers of House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy and Republican Whip Steve Scalise, and billionaires like Bernie Marcus and Steve Wynn.
Other supporters of Cawthorn’s who are affected reportedly include dozens of retired Americans from multiple states including North Carolina, as well as friends and locals from his community, Daily Mail reported.
Reportedly, Cawthorn used the funds as he was low on money and now is stuck as he does not have the cash to repay the amount.
“Candidates can’t use general election funds in the primary, and if the candidate loses their primary, they must return general election funds to maxed-out contributors within 60 days,” Brendan Fischer, deputy director of the investigative watchdog organization Documented, told the Daily Beast.
“The law around this is clear-cut so the FEC will take violations pretty seriously.”
Source: The Republic Brief