Ousted North Carolina representative Madison Cawthorn is attempting a political comeback in Florida.
The 30-year-old Republican was voted out of Congress in 2022 after serving a single scandal-ridden term that included a claim that he’d been invited to a cocaine-fueled orgy by his lawmaker colleagues. Former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy later claimed Hawthorn confessed he “exaggerated” when describing his experiences in Washington, D.C.
In a campaign video released Wednesday, Cawthorn, who’s from Asheville, N.C., calls Cape Coral, Fla. his home and says that’s the community he now represents.
“I’m running for Congress to stand with President Trump, defend our conservative values, and fight to stop the radical left every single time,” Cawthorn declares.
Calling Florida “the heart of the MAGA” he’s campaigning on a platform that centers around fighting crime and lowering insurance costs.
“This state believes in you and it needs you to fight for this country,” Cawthorn tells Floridians.
He was arrested in Florida in September after failing to appear in court after being accused of driving without a license. He was earlier involved in a car crash with a Florida State Trooper, according to Gulf Coast News.
Cawthorn was confined to a wheelchair following a 2014 auto crash that left him partially paralyzed. He claimed in a 2017 speech that a friend who was also in the car left him to die in a “fiery tomb,” according to the Washington Post.
That friend later said he had in fact pulled Cawthorn out of the wrecked car and moved him to safety.
