The return of Madison Cawthorn? Here’s a look back at his term representing NC
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Madison Cawthorn visited Capitol Hill, reportedly to discuss a potential congressional return.
- Cawthorn lost reelection after scandals overshadowed his brief legislative record.
- He now reportedly plans to run in Florida for Rep. Byron Donalds’ open seat.
Former Rep. Madison Cawthorn is reportedly planning his return to Congress.
Axios reported the news Wednesday night after Cawthorn was spotted on both the Senate side of the Capitol and on the House floor earlier that day. Wednesday was the first full day back for members of Congress after an annual monthlong break from legislating.
Axios reported Cawthorn was at the Capitol discussing with his former colleagues his possible return.
Cawthorn, 30, served one term in Congress representing North Carolina’s 11th Congressional District, but his constituents voted him out of office after a series of scandals turned him from a rising star in the Republican Party to a name associated with trouble.
“Madison Cawthorn’s brief time in office will be remembered for scandal, more so than legislation,” said Chris Cooper, a political science professor at Western Carolina University, who lives in the district. “He was a member of Congress who arrived with great fanfare, spoke on the (Republican National Convention) stage before he is ever elected, and presented himself as a new voice from a new generation for a new Republican Party, but he soon found himself embroiled in scandal.”
After his failed reelection campaign, Cawthorn packed up his office early and moved to Florida, where he plans to run for Rep. Byron Donalds’ seat, according to Axios. Donalds, who served with Cawthorn in the far-right House Freedom Caucus, is running for governor.
Here’s a recap of Cawthorn’s time in North Carolina:
Cawthorn was born on Aug. 1, 1995, to Priscilla and Roger Cawthorn, who homeschooled their two sons. He played football for a homeschool league, the Asheville Saints. He worked for Chick-Fil-A in high school.
In 2013, Rep. Mark Meadows, Cawthorn’s predecessor, nominated him for the U.S. Naval Academy, but he was denied admission.
In 2014, when Cawthorn was 18, he was traveling near Daytona Beach, Florida, in a car driven by his best friend when his friend fell asleep. Cawthorn had his feet on the dashboard when their vehicle crashed into a concrete barrier, causing partial paralysis for Cawthorn.
From January 2015 until August 2016, Cawthorn interned for Meadows. In the fall 2016 semester, Cawthorn attended Patrick Henry College to study political science, but he dropped out after the term’s end due to low grades, which he blamed on a brain injury from his accident.
His time at the college would come up again in his run for Congress. In August 2020, more than 150 alumni signed a letter accusing Cawthorn of sexually “predatory” behavior at the college. The accusation would come after several women came forward accusing Cawthorn of sexual misconduct. Cawthorn was not charged with a crime in connection with those accusations.
Cawthorn ran for Congress in 2020 against Meadows’ family friend, Lynda Bennett, who had President Donald Trump’s endorsement. Bennett won the primary in March 2020, but did not receive enough of the vote to stave off a runoff, and Cawthorn surpassed Bennett in that runoff.
Cawthorn received widespread attention that summer while giving a speech at the 2020 Republican National Convention. During the speech he stood up from his wheelchair, as he quoted the Pledge of Allegiance’s “for which I stand.”
Meanwhile, Cawthorn’s fascination with German dictator Adolf Hitler was well-documented on his social media accounts, and his opponents tried to use that against him in the general election.
It didn’t work. In November 2020, Cawthorn was elected the youngest member of the 117th Congress at 25 years old.
Before he was sworn in that January, Cawthorn married Cristina Bayardelle in December 2020. They would divorce a year later.
Trouble for Cawthorn began immediately upon taking office.
He was criticized for speaking at the Save America rally on the Ellipse in Washington on Jan. 6, 2021, telling the crowd “still had fight left in them.” This was before the crowd marched to the U.S. Capitol in an attempt to stop the certification of the election of President Joe Biden and chanted phrases like, “Hang (Vice President) Mike Pence.”
But weeks later, as Biden was being sworn into office, Cawthorn would be one of 17 freshmen who wrote to Biden congratulating him on his election and asking for bipartisanship.
A month later, Cawthorn was caught at the Asheville airport with a gun in his carry-on bag.
In August 2021, Cawthorn spread falsehoods about the 2020 election being stolen, telling his constituents in Marion, “If our election systems continue to be rigged and continue to be stolen, then it’s going to lead to one place — and it’s bloodshed.” He added, “I will tell you, as much as I am willing to defend our liberty at all costs, there is nothing that I would dread doing more than having to pick up arms against a fellow American.”
In March 2022, as Republican Sen. Thom Tillis, the chairman of the Senate NATO Observer Group, advocated for helping Ukraine in its war with Russia, Cawthorn criticized Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, calling him “a thug” and his government “incredibly evil.” His comments were immediately condemned by Republicans and played on repeat in Russian media.
That same month, Cawthorn accused unnamed members of Congress of having orgies and snorting “key bumps” of cocaine, drawing ire from his Republican colleagues.
The orgy comments and Zelenskyy criticism seemed to have kicked off a campaign against Cawthorn within the GOP to ensure he wasn’t reelected.
In April, Tillis called for an investigation into Cawthorn for insider trading in connection with his promotion of a Let’s Go Brandon meme coin. He would later be fined by the House Ethics Committee over a finding that Cawthorn had a vested interest in the meme coin he was promoting.
In March 2022, Cawthorn was pulled over and charged with driving while his license was revoked. And in April, he was caught carrying a loaded handgun in a carry-on bag at the Charlotte airport.
That same month, photos of Cawthorn were leaked showing him wearing lingerie on a cruise ship. Cawthorn said he was participating in a game on the boat.
In May 2022, just days before his primary, a sexually suggestive video of Cawthorn naked in bed with another man came to light. Cawthorn said he recorded the video while goofing off with a friend.
Later that month, Cawthorn lost his reelection campaign to Chuck Edwards, a Republican who would go on to win the seat.
Cawthorn shut down his offices early and moved to Florida in November 2022.
This story was originally published September 4, 2025 at 4:48 PM.
