7 Republicans ran against Madison Cawthorn in the primary one week ago and he came in second with 28,106 votes (31.9%). State Sen. Chuck Edwards won with 29,438 (33.4%). Although Cawthorn won i the small, backward rural counties-- Haywood, Macon and Cherokee-- most of the voters live in Buncombe and Henderson counties and Cawthorn lost both badly, less than a quarter of the voters in Buncombe. (The Democrats had a spirited primary too and Jasmine Beach-Ferrara won with 32,391 votes, quite a bit more than Cawthorn.)
But Cawthorn is still allowed to vote right into January. In fact last week, he was there to vote against addressing the baby formula crisis, against addressing gasoline price-gauging and against addressing domestic terrorists-- probably because so many of them live in Haywood, Macon and Cherokee counties. But voting against everything isn't all he'll be doing between now and January. The bipartisan House Ethics Committee announced it would be formally investigating 3 far right crackpots, Ronny Jackson (R-TX), Alex Mooney (R-WV) and our boy Madison, all 3 having been investigated and referred over from the Office of Congressional Ethics.
According to the Committee's press release, Cawthorn is being investigated for improperly promoting a cryptocurrency-- a pump and dump scam-- in which he had an undisclosed financial interest, and for engaging "in an improper relationship with an individual employed on his congressional staff, that's the 3rd cousin once removed, Stephen Smith, who is also his lover-- and the recipient of inordinately large sums of campaign and taxpayer money. The Committee didn't disclose what the charges are against Jackson and Mooney, although Jackson was stealing campaign funds for private use and Mooney took a bribe in the form of an expensive family trip to Aruba. The House Ethics Committee is a bad joke and never does anything so no one cares about being investigated by them. They suck!
Cawthorn has been profiting from the now worthless "Let's Go Brandon" meme cryptocurrency. The Ethics Committee empaneled a Madison Cawthorn subcommittee 2 weeks ago to investigate the charges against him. The members are Vernonica Escobar (D-TX), the chair, Michael Guest (R-MS), Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-DE) and Michelle Fischbach (R-MN). Cawthorn, a notorious liar, denies everything and claims the investigation is just a formality.