Madison Cawthorn loses primary, concedes to Chuck Edwards in North Carolina
NBCSep 09, 2022
The Facts
Rep. Madison Cawthorn (NC-R) has shuttered his political action committee less than a day after losing his primary election on Tues. to Sen. Chuck Edwards.
Edwards - who had been endorsed by the North Carolina Sen.,Thom Tillis, Sen. leader Phil Berger, and a number of other North Carolina Republicans - narrowly defeated Cawthorn by two percentage points, earning 33.5% while the incumbent representative attained 31.7% of the vote.
The Spin
Democratic narrative
Cawthorn is in the same league as Marjorie Taylor Greene and other Republicans who peddle conspiratorial falsehoods, and use inflammatory far-right rhetoric. Luckily, Cawthorn's defeat suggests that Trump's endorsement is not enough to carry a candidate with this much baggage past the finish line in every race.
Pro-Trump narrative
Cawthorn was targeted by both traditional Republicans and the mainstream media. Though it's probably for the best that he didn't win, as he has personal issues that need to be dealt with, the GOP establishment decided to knife him only because of his audacity to turn on the swamp.