Madison Cawthorn concedes in North Carolina GOP House primary

(Image credit: Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)

published 18 May 2022

Rep. Madison Cawthorn (R-N.C.) has conceded defeat in the Republican primary for North Carolina's 11th Congressional District.

Cawthorn's representative, Luke Ball, told reporters that the freshman lawmaker called his opponent Chuck Edwards, a conservative state senator, to concede. With about 95 percent of precincts reporting, Edwards has 33.5 percent of the vote, followed by Cawthorn with 31.7 percent.

Cawthorn, 26, recently claimed that other Republican lawmakers openly used cocaine in front of him and invited him to orgies; showed up to an airport with a loaded handgun; was charged with a misdemeanor for driving with a revoked license; and called Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky "a thug." He had the support of former President Donald Trump, who said over the weekend that Cawthorn "made some foolish mistakes, which I don't believe he'll make again ... let's give Madison a second chance!"

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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.