Rep. Madison Cawthorn (R-N.C.) — a first-term member of Congress who often seems far more concerned with tweeting snarky messages and securing press coverage than doing the actual work of legislating — now has a list of GOP challengers in his home district. As of this Tuesday, there are four Republicans running against Cawthorn in the Republican Congressional primary race ahead of next year’s general election, when his seat will be on the ballot.
As Eric Batchelor, who served as a lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Army and now works as a sheriff’s deputy amid his own run against Cawthorn, pointedly put it:
‘Being a representative is about being a representative to this district. It’s not about flying around this country raising national campaign dollars and searching for the next photo op. It’s about being here in this district.’
Batchelor also said that there “are a lot of people who voted for [Cawthorn] because they were voting for the Republican, they were voting for who they saw as the best option, but who are not happy with him now.” Recently, Cawthorn has continued to garner harsh criticism, including for a recent proclamation that “if our election systems continue to be rigged,” then “bloodshed” will unfold. Sure, Cawthorn said that he wouldn’t embrace such a course of events, and he said that concerned observers could stop that scenario from playing out by working to fix non-existent problems with election integrity — but the reality is that a sitting U.S. Congressman openly touted and tacitly excused what he saw as a potential for deadly violence. Such is disgraceful, dangerous behavior.
For now, Cawthorn is in a political position that seems promising for him. Thanks in large part to the after-effects of Trump’s cultivation of vitriol and nonsense among Republicans, Cawthorn fits right in with much of the party, and showing his political fortitude, he’s raised large sums of money this year. (In the first six months of this year, he brought in $1.8 million, although he’s already spent a nearly equivalent amount.) Batchelor said, though, that although he may be incorrect, “a lot of people are maybe starting to accept the fact that the Republican Party is not just about one person again.” Read more about the race at this link.
