Republicans have knives out for WNC’s Madison Cawthorn
A few NC-11 Democrats have sworn themselves to changing their voter registrations to UNAffilliated for the emotional satisfaction of voting against Rep. Madison Cawthorn’s in North Carolina’s May 17 primary. It won’t likely be enough to make a difference. DocDawg, however, noticed their presence in early voting numbers.
The broader anti-Cawthorn effort is coming from the Republican Party. Daily Beast has a lengthy piece on efforts by Republicans in North Carolina to torpedo Cawthorn’s reelection effort in NC-11, a conservative seat formerly held by Mark Meadows and Blue Dog Heath Shuler before that.
Republicans want the scandal-and-grift kid gone:
Multiple embarrassing traffic stops. A credible accusation of insider trading. Photos of him sporting hoop earrings and a bra. A video of his hand near the crotch of a male staffer. Another video showing him jokingly but nakedly humping the upper body of potentially the same man—his cousin. And possibly more to come.
Few in politics have seen anything like the ever-worsening public relations trainwreck that has consumed the political career of Rep. Madison Cawthorn (R-NC). The unrelenting pile-up of damaging stories, insiders say, is the clear handiwork of political players determined to take out the 26-year old MAGA hero in the May 17 primary election.
The knives are out
The last straw for old-guard Republicans came after Cawthorn in March “alleged that unnamed GOP lawmakers were openly sniffing drugs and hosting orgies.” Now Republicans are feeding enbarrassing information to “Fire Madison,” a website run by a couple of Cawthorn-obsessed Democratic operatives.
“It’s not folks out of Washington that are sending this stuff,” insists David Wheeler, a former candidate for the state senate who operates the Fire Madison PAC. “It’s folks who used to work with him, who were his supporters.”
The PAC may be the least of Cawthorn’s worries, Daily Beast suggests:
The Cawthorn operation currently owes twice as much money as it has in the bank. In the month of April alone, they racked up nearly $250,000 in debt while spending another $216,000. The campaign offset that with only $102,000 in contributions, closing the month with a little more than $137,000 cash on hand.
But the problem isn’t limited to the spending itself. It’s also how he’s spending it.
“It’s a grift and a racket,” one North Carolina GOP strategist told The Daily Beast. Reports of Cawthorn setting up his friends with cushy paychecks have raised eyebrows among Republicans in the state, he said.
Cawthorn’s self-inflicted wounds and emnity from less-embarrassing Republicans may redound to the benefit of primary opponent NC Sen. Chuck Edwards. Edwards is endorsed by figureheads such as Sen. Thom Tillis. Edwards by reputation is no less MAGA than Cawthorn, just more subtle about it.
Early voting data in two of the most Republican (and well-to-do) precincts in Buncombe County, NC-11’s largest and bluest county, shows voting there spiking at 4-5 times the county’s other precincts. Republican primary ballots cast there by Rs and UNAs heavily outnumber Democratic ones.
But are they voting for someone or against someone?
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