Madison Cawthorn appears to be done with Congress, both in the electoral and literal senses.
The first-term House member from North Carolina lost his primary to Chuck Edwards, a member of the state’s Senate, after a series of embarrassing videos leaked and Mr Cawthorn lost the support of his party’s leaders in the House and Senate thanks to comments he made about his colleagues supposedly using drugs and having sex parties.
Now, The Washington Post reports that Mr Cawthorn has virtually ceased operations in his district office, which is described as no longer being regularly staffed, including vital constituent work which includes the more mundane but still important duties like helping residents of his district obtain federal services or report problems in the area.
He has also shed some of his most loyal staffers in the final months of his term, including Luke Ball, spokesman for both his House office and failed reelection bid.
According to the Post, his office is no longer working on any new requests for assistance from constituents, declaring in a voicemail answering message: “Due to our office beginning to close for the term, we are no longer accepting new case work.”
One of his several challengers in this summer’s primary, Michele Woodhouse, said the congressman had virtually disappeared.
“He’s not anywhere to be found,” she stold the Post. “I don’t hear from anyone that there’s any great interest in what Madison Cawthorn is doing.”
It’s not the first time the congressman’s behavior has rattled constituents back home.
In late 2021 as primary season began to heat up the 26-year-old congressman made a controversial decision to leave his old district and run in a more conservative district created by the state’s legislature nearby. It was a move that ended up squarely working to his detriment, as voters in the 11th District saw it as a betrayal and would later have the opportunity to exact revenge when the North Carolina Supreme Court tossed out the newly drawn district map.
Once a darling of the young conservative Trump-aligned right, the congressman failed to even qualify for a runoff against Mr Edwards on primary night and saw his reelection ambitions end at an auto detailer and tyre shop rented out by his campaign for his watch party.
