Former Rep. Madison Cawthorn pays FEC fine avoiding DOJ referral and asset seizure
Former Rep. Madison Cawthorn has paid a $17,458 fine owed to the Federal Elections Commission after violating campaign finance law.
FEC records showed Thursday afternoon his fine was paid in full.
In July 2022, Cawthorn failed to file a quarterly report for his campaign committee Making a Difference in Service to Our Nation, or the MADISON PAC. That violated campaign finance laws, and when the report came in 30 days late, Cawthorn listed himself as the treasurer, meaning he would take the blame.
Last July, the FEC issued the $17,458 civil penalty against Cawthorn, but Cawthorn left it unpaid for six months.
On Feb. 12, he was told he had 30 days to pay or face potential seizure of the money and a possible referral to the Department of Justice.
Cawthorn, 29, once represented North Carolina’s most southwestern district in Congress. At the time, beginning Jan. 3, 2021, he was the youngest member of Congress at 25. At the time he was considered the up and coming star of the Republican Party.
But he left a mark in Washington not for his youth, but for his indiscretions, facing down numerous scandals from allegations of sexual misconduct to being convicted of bringing a gun into an airport to calling Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelenskyy “a thug” to accusing his colleagues of having orgies and snorting cocaine.
President Donald Trump endorsed Cawthorn’s reelection campaign in 2022, but he lost to Rep. Chuck Edwards, a Republican from Flat Rock, who is quickly rising in the ranks on Capitol Hill.
Despite all of that, and more, Cawthorn is rumored to be considering a run to return to Congress, this time in Florida.
After McClatchy broke the news about Cawthorn’s FEC fine, Cawthorn filed paperwork to terminate his PAC, which held a negative balance.
This story was originally published April 3, 2025 at 4:08 PM.
