Fancy cigars. Four-figure dinner tabs. Coast-to-coast luxury travel and stays at swanky hotels. Generous gifts to friends, and lucrative payouts to Republican advisors and cronies. Madison Cawthorn’s re-election campaign was rolling in money. But now, following his defeat in the May 17 Republican primary, the money’s all gone. And federal officials want to know where it went.
In a bluntly worded letter dated Aug. 1 — Cawthorn’s 27th birthday — the Federal Election Commission warned that unless Cawthorn “immediately” submits a report that was due July 15, he faces fines of about $1,000 a day, an audit, or even “legal enforcement action.” The report must detail how he handled more than $3.65 million in campaign contributions, fully listing all his donors and the amounts they gave, and providing a full account of where he spent it.
Cawthorn instead spent his birthday weekend traveling and partying. “One heck of a birthday weekend!,” he wrote on Instagram. “Best friends and the best family. Washington, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Florida all ensured a very eventful and fun birthday. Back to work now.” He posted videos showing himself dressing up in paramilitary gear and role-playing “force on force training in a shoot house” with friends.
The F.E.C. investigation is the latest in a growing series of personal and professional complications for the young Hendersonville Republican, one among many others that he must deal with before his first and perhaps only congressional term expires on Jan. 3, 2023.
Cawthorn’s was no ordinary political campaign, just as he is no ordinary politician. He rocketed to national fame as a darling of the far right, became a protege of then-President Donald Trump, and a fixture on Fox News programs and fringe cable networks as a trash-talking, verbal grenade-tossing bane of liberals and traditional Republicans....
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