Madison Cawthorn, 24, has won the North Carolina 11th District Republican Primary in his bid to succeed former Congressman Mark Meadows, who left office to join the White House as chief of staff, in the upcoming November election.
The New York Times, which has called the race for Cawthorn, reports that the young Republican businessman secured 65% of the votes, with 95% of precincts results, in the run-off primary against Trump-endorsed businesswoman Lynda Bennet.
Bennet, 62, boasted a bevy of other high-profile endorsements, including Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX), Congressman Jim Jordan (R-OH) and Meadows himself, but still lost by a large margin.
“Tonight, the voters of the 11th district of North Carolina said they’re ready for a new generation of leadership in Washington,” Cawthorn said in a statement obtained by Blue Ridge Now. “You turned our message of hope, opportunity and freedom into a movement. While the far left is lighting our cities on fire, we are lifting the light of liberty. Nancy Pelosi and Joe Biden may not be able to control where the Democrats are going but, together, we can.
“Ours is not just a ‘grass roots’ campaign. Together, we are creating the deep roots of a solid oak tree which Abraham Lincoln compared to pillars of freedom. We can build new pillars all across this nation and prove Lincoln right when he said, ’that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom — and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth,” he said.
Cawthorn also made it clear that he supports Trump and does not see his own victory as a referendum on the president.
“The people of Western North Carolina are wise and discerning,” said Cawthorn. “You observed both candidates and simply made the choice you believed is best for our district. I look forward to fighting alongside our president after I’m elected in November.”
Cawthorn, who will become old enough for office in August, told The Washington Examiner in May that one of his highest priorities, should he be elected to Congress, would be healthcare reform, an issue that remains deeply personal for him.
“I had over $3 million in medical debt as an 18-year-old,” said Cawthorn, who was paralyzed in a 2014 car accident that nearly killed him, and who now wants to “be the face of the Republican Party when it comes to healthcare.”
“We’ve got to introduce more competition in that market to lower costs so that if someone has a catastrophic injury like I did, they’re not going to be $3 million in debt. That’s absurd,” he said.
If elected, Cawthorn will become a member of the select few representatives who were sent to Congress at the age of 25, and the first member of Congress who was born in the 1990s. The current youngest member is Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, (D-NY), who is 30.
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