Cawthorn: Trump-backed Gen Z congressman ousted amid scandal

Seven competitors had vied for his seat, and the nomination was won by Chuck Edwards, a state senator who had earned the support of North Carolina’s seasoned senator and the more structured elements of the party.

In the months teaching up to Tuesday’s primary, he was charged twice with carrying a weapon to an airport, drew the ire of party grandees for declaring he had been invited to orgies by Republican colleagues, and faced inquiries over photos that featured him dressed in women’s lingerie.

Voters and party bigwigs were unamused. When he ran for office, Mr. Cawthorn “said some really exciting things, ran a grassroots campaign all over the community, and he showed concern [for his constituents],” said Hunter Clark, 18, a former staffer for the congressman. “For me, and for a lot of people, he was changed.”

His youthfulness was also part of the plea, said Mr. Clark – but his scandals have shown “he’s not mature” – and he voted against his old boss this election.

Even Mr. Cawthorn’s most powerful backer, Donald Trump, was said to be wary of the acolyte who had ridden the former president’s “Make America Great Again” coattails to the office – through a day before the primary he mused that the congressman had “made some foolish mistakes, which I don’t believe he’ll make again” and deserved a second event.

But Mr. Cawthorn’s political career has never been short of controversy.

He raised eyebrows in 2020 with social media posts bragging about visiting Hitler’s holiday home. (He called the Nazi leader “a supreme evil”, but angered Jewish leaders by referring to him as “the Fuhrer”.)

He praised rioters who descended upon the US Capitol to overturn Joe Biden’s election and apparently lied about having been admitted to the US Naval Academy.

None of that stopped the politician – who uses a wheelchair after a 2014 car crash left him partially paralyzed – from collecting legions of Instagram fans, and winning adulation from Gen Z followers of Trumpism.

“He is the only traditional option with the backbone to stand up to Washington liberals,” said Cawthorn voter Cole, 21, who asked that his surname not be included.

But his purported influence with younger voters – the premise of Mr. Cawthorn’s pitch to Republicans – did not help him on a primary night.

Ironically, younger voters were never the ones who boosted him into office in the first place, said Chris Cooper, a political scientist at Western Carolina University.

Rather, it was the promise that he could speak for them that rocked older voters, said Prof Cooper, who studies North Carolina politics.

Ahead of Tuesday’s contest, there was no sign of a groundswell of young people going to the ballot box, he added.

Mr. Cawthorn was not wrong, though, to hone in on Gen Z’s untapped potential.

In 2020, more than a third of those aged 18-29 who cast ballots voted for Mr. Trump, according to an analysis from Tufts University – close to 10 million votes.

But youth voting has long been a problem in modern US elections.

From 1972-to 1996, voter participation among 18-24-year-olds dropped from 50% to 32% in presidential elections, according to census data. It has lost span since and is more harmful in the midterms.