Republicans in Madison Cawthorn’s North Carolina district appear to have grown tired of him and say he is not there for them.
A piece in The Herald-Sun detailed how Cawthorn has vanished on his district:
“Mark (Meadows) was so good,” Patneaude told me in his wood-paneled office on Main Street. “Out of all the counties, if you needed anything, his people were in touch with you. Mark was here when we wanted him here.”
Cawthorn, simply put, has not been. His website lists four offices in western North Carolina, but only two phone numbers. Only one of those connected to a real staffer, who picked up on the second call, and said the offices on the website are “satellite offices” and that all case workers were located in Hendersonville.
“I mean, I’ve not seen him since the election,” says Joe Hall, the owner of Bear Creek Marina. He doesn’t attribute Cawthorn’s failures to any one thing; instead, he says, it happened gradually. Harold Wilson, a Vietnam veteran at the Edwards event, said the congressman “didn’t stay in touch with the people who helped him.”
In a video, Cawthorn denied the allegation made by a former staffer that he closed offices, but according to voters in his district, that is exactly what Cawthorn did.
Rep. Cawthorn got elected and seems to have abandoned the people back home. In the same article, Cawthorn’s DUIs and getting caught twice with a gun in the airport were mentioned, but his biggest problem appears to be an unwillingness to represent his constituents.
Voters in districts with heavy partisan leans will overlook a lot for their chosen representative, but the one thing they will not forgive is forgetting the folks back home.
Madison Cawthorn’s primary is probably heading for a runoff, but one should not be surprised if the voters bounce Cawthorn out of Congress, but it will be his failure to do the job, not the scandals, that may get him fired.
Mr. Easley is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
