Rep. Madison Cawthorn (R-N.C.), who lost the GOP primary in his district this year meaning he’ll be out of Congress come next January, apparently engaged in a major violation of federal campaign finance rules. As a new report from The Daily Beast lays it out, Cawthorn’s campaign spent money that was meant for the general election and now can’t repay those who originally donated it. Both items violate federal standards.
Political candidates are permitted to simultaneously fundraise for primary and general election campaigns, but they “can’t spend the general election funds unless they win the primary, first,” The Daily Beast explains. Although the general election-specific money must be refunded per federal law, the Cawthorn team evidently doesn’t have enough money available to make those refunds. “Cawthorn is required by law to refund those donations. Instead, according to a campaign source, the campaign already spent the money,” The Daily Beast explains. The publication relied on a source close to the campaign because the Cawthorn camp was late in making required federal financial filings, meaning they’ll already be facing a financial penalty.
One of the internal problems for the Cawthorn campaign was evidently high levels of spending, including hundreds of thousands that went towards fees associated with consulting and conducting campaign fundraising. “Nobody ever did the math, which baffled me because the spending was so outrageous,” the source for The Daily Beast stated. Jordan Libowitz, who serves at the government watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, explained to the Beast: “There are few more ironclad rules in campaign finance than you can’t spend general election funds in a primary… There are strict limits on how much may be given and spent in each. If Cawthorn spent funds raised for the general during the primary and made no attempt to refund the general donations, he’ll likely be in a lot of trouble with the FEC.”
The total owed to general election donors is $220,080.85. As of May 5, which was the most recent point when relevant data was available as of the report from The Daily Beast, the Cawthorn campaign had a little more than $137,000 in available funds — and well over twice that in debt. There are apparently at least a few options for covering the required refunds, including getting funds from the campaign treasurer or candidate along with raising more money. Cawthorn recently took over as his campaign treasurer, although it’s not clear the figure who served in that position would somehow be absolved of responsibility for the problems with general election fundraising simply by leaving. According to the source for The Daily Beast close to the Cawthorn campaign, there’d been behind-the-scenes discussions about Cawthorn running again — with money from the new campaign somehow covering costs from the failed primary bid — but Cawthorn refused the idea.
Cawthorn sustained a slew of mostly self-inflicted hits from various scandals throughout his brief time in Congress up to the primary election. Just during that short period, Cawthorn faced accusations of potential insider trading, was repeatedly caught speeding in his home state — in one case by 24 mph, was twice caught with a gun among his possessions at an airport, spoke of presumably deadly violence as inevitable in the event imaginary election fraud continued, and more.
