North Carolina primary: Madison Cawthorn trails rival as Trump-backed Ted Budd scores an early win

North Carolina state Senator Chuck Edwards, who was backed by Senator Thom Tillis – a fellow member of Cawthorn’s Tar Heel Congressional delegation – declared victory on Tuesday night

Rep. Madison Cawthorn lost his first re-election bid on Tuesday after serving in Congress for less than two years and racking up a litany of scandals that turned longtime members of his own party against him.

Cawthorn narrowly lost the Republican primary election for North Carolina’s 11th Congressional district to state Senator Chuck Edwards.

Edwards had been backed by Senator Thom Tillis, a fellow member of North Carolina’s Congressional delegation who has become one of Cawthorn’s most vocal critics.

Edwards released a statement on Tuesday night declaring his victory to be ‘incredible.’

‘Against all odds, we fought hard to win this election and provide clear conservative leadership for the mountains. I am so grateful for the support I received and am forever indebted to the hardworking people of this district who made this victory possible,’ Edwards said. 

Cawthorn whittled the local lawmaker’s lead down to single digits after initially falling behind Edwards by more than 10 points However he ultimately failed to catch up.

The 26-year-old Republican’s re-election bid was widely seen as one of the most critical tests of Donald Trump’s endorsement strength. Supporters of Cawthorn and the former president hoped Trump’s backing could push him over the line despite a litany of recent public relations crises.

Meanwhile in the state’s GOP Senate primary, Trump’s endorsement was enough to push relatively little-known lawmaker Rep. Ted Budd to victory as the Republican candidate to replace retiring Senator Richard Burr. 

Budd was declared the winner by multiple outlets less than an hour after polls closed.

He had trailed former North Carolina Governor Pat McCrory in early polls before Trump’s endorsement sent his public profile skyrocketing. 

Cawthorn reportedly left his election night party shortly before 10:30 p.m. after addressing his supporters.

‘No matter what you are facing, when Donald Trump has your back, he has your back until the end,’ the young lawmaker said according to CNN, vowing to fight on. 

CNN reported that Cawthorn left his election night party shortly before 10:30 p.m., as his top rival Chuck Edwards declared a narrow victory over the now one-term Congressman

‘No matter what you are facing, when Donald Trump has your back, he has your back until the end,’ the young lawmaker said

Meanwhile Trump’s endorsement managed to skyrocket Rep. Ted Budd from relative obscurity to winning the Senate Republican primary on Tuesday

Another Trump-backed candidate, 26-year-old former college football player Bo Hines, has an early lead in the state’s 13th Congressional District Republican primary. 

Candidates in North Carolina’s elections need just over a 30 percent share of the vote to avoid a runoff election.

The state has also shattered its previous records for early voting in a primary, with more than 576,000 ballots cast before Election Day. 

As of last month, Cawthorn was polling at 38 percent in the Tar Heel State’s 11th Congressional District. 

It’s double-digits above Edwards, but an 11-point slump from March after grappling with the fallout of multiple scandals. 

Both races are testing the strength of Donald Trump’s endorsement power

Cawthorn has been cited for bringing a handgun in his carry on luggage at the airport twice since being elected to Congress, and has been pulled over by North Carolina highway patrol at least three times.

He earned backlash from members of his own party both in North Carolina and in Congress for claiming on a podcast to have been invited to an orgy where he witnessed senior lawmakers doing cocaine. 

The young firebrand was also criticized for calling Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky a ‘thug’ in the midst of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and was forced to answer for a video featuring himself naked and simulating a sex act with an unknown person, and one published by DailyMail.com showing the congressman’s male scheduler placing his hand on Cawthorn’s crotch.

Cawthorn has dismissed the laundry list of faux-pas as ‘blackmail’ in a coordinated ‘drip campaign’ to keep him from winning re-election.

Roughly $1.5 million has been spent outside of North Carolina to keep Cawthorn from victory.

Leading the charge against him is North Carolina Senator Thom Tillis, who told NBC earlier on Tuesday: ‘If there’s a runoff, Cawthorn loses.’

‘I believe everybody deserves second chances, that’s why I voted for a lot of the criminal justice reform bills. But at a certain point, this becomes a pattern of behavior,’ Tillis said. 

Former college football player Bo Hines, who is running in North Carolina’s 13th Congressional District, has drawn comparisons to Cawthorn. The 26-year-old candidate is also endorsed by Trump

Bombshell photos show Rep. Madison Cawthorn, who recently accused his fellow lawmakers of inviting him to orgies and doing cocaine in front of him, dressed in women’s lingerie, chugging wine and surrounded by women

In this photo obtained by WSOC, Cawthorn is at Charlotte Douglas International Airport after TSA allegedly found a gun in his carry-on luggage

In this photo obtained by WSOC, Cawthorn is at Charlotte Douglas International Airport after TSA allegedly found a gun in his carry-on luggage

This photo provided by the Transportation Security Administration shows a 9mm Staccato C2 handgun that officials say was found in the bag

However Trump gave Cawthorn a last-minute boost in the early hours of Monday morning after it was reported last week that the scandals made the ex-president uneasy about his March 2021 endorsement.

‘At 18 years of age, Madison Cawthorn, the now 26 year old Congressman from the Great State of North Carolina, went through a life changing event the likes of which, fortunately, few people will ever have to endure,’ Trump wrote on his platform Truth Social.

The former president was referring to a fiery 2014 car wreck that left Cawthorn paralyzed from the waist down and in need of a wheelchair. 

His post continued, ‘In just seconds, he lost the use of the lower half of his body, a traumatic experience to say the least.’

‘When Madison was first elected to Congress, he did a great job. Recently, he made some foolish mistakes, which I don’t believe he’ll make again…let’s give Madison a second chance!’