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Cawthorn faces new congressional ballot challenge

As shift in districts necessitated new challenge. Now North Carolina, and the federal courts, may decide whether Cawthorn engaged in insurrection, can be kept off ballot.

Posted Updated

By
Travis Fain
, state government reporter

Another formal attempt has been filed to keep U.S. Rep. Madison Cawthorn off the ballot in North Carolina after a similar effort was knocked down by North Carolina's redistricting process.

A pair of voters, backed by North Carolina attorneys and a national election reform group, filed the new challenge Tuesday with the North Carolina State Board of Elections. They argue Cawthorn's conduct in the run-up to the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol triggers a clause in the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution that was written to keep Confederates out of Congress.

That clause forbids officials who "have engaged in insurrection or rebellion" against the United States "or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof" from running for office.

Cawthorn, a first-term Republican from the western part of the state, has denied he engaged in insurrection.

The challenge is essentially the same one filed against Cawthorn in January, but that one was deemed moot after a court-ordered redistricting process reworked North Carolina's congressional districts, shifting the boundaries of the district Cawthorn initially filed to run in. With a new map set, pending a last-ditch challenge to the U.S. Supreme Court, Cawthorn has since filed to run in his old district in the North Carolina mountains, the 11th Congressional District.
The next step is in flux. Normally the state's elections board would convene an inquiry. Under North Carolina law, Cawthorn bears the burden of proof to show the allegations are untrue. But the congressman sued in federal court to keep the inquiry from moving forward in the first challenge, and that case remains active, so a federal judge may block the elections board.

After the new challenge came down Wednesday, Chief U.S. District Court Judge Richard Myers set a hearing in that lawsuit for Friday morning in Wilmington.

The challenge lays out some of Cawthorn's statements before, during and after a Jan. 6, 2021, rally near the U.S. Capitol. The rally was a "Stop the Steal" event held by organizers who believed former President Donald Trump had actually won the 2020 presidential election and that the election had been stolen by Democrats. The rally was attended by Cawthorn and other supporters of Donald Trump. Protestors then stormed the U.S. Capitol building in an apparent attempt to stop Congress' from certifying President Joe Biden's election win.

"Challengers have reasonable suspicion that Representative Cawthorn was involved in efforts to intimidate Congress and the vice president into rejecting valid electoral votes and subvert the essential constitutional function of an orderly and peaceful transition of power," the new challenge against Cawthorn says.

"Representative Cawthorn promoted the demonstration ahead of time, tweeting, 'the future of this Republic hinges on the actions of a solitary few ... it's time to fight,' and he spoke at the demonstration," the challenge says.

It also notes some of Cawthorn's more recent comments, calling people arrested after the attack "political prisoners."

Cawthorn's spokesman didn't respond Tuesday to a request for comment, but Cawthorn addressed the accusations against him in his federal suit, saying he "vigorously denies that he engaged in ‘insurrection or rebellion’ against the United States."

His lawsuit also argues that the state elections board doesn't have the power to take him off the ballot, regardless of whether he engaged in insurrection. Among other things, it argues that "running for political office is quintessential First Amendment activity and afforded great protection."

The challenge will be closely watched nationally, and could be a blueprint for keeping others who participated in the Jan. 6 rally off the ballot.

A group called Free Speech for People helped bring the complaint filed Tuesday. It's legal team, along with North Carolina attorneys John Wallace, who has represented the state Democratic Party, Bob Orr, a one-time Republican state Supreme Court justice who left the GOP over its embrace of Trump, and a team of lawyers from Womble Bond Dickinson represent the challengers in the case.

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