New GOP-funded attack ad calls Rep. Madison Cawthorn a liar

A bare-knuckled attack ad against Republican Congressman Madison Cawthorn went on air in his 11th District this past weekend. FEC documents show the ad, "Madison Cawthorn's Lies," was paid for by Results for NC PAC, which is aligned with another sitting Republican, North Carolina Senator Thom Tillis.

Posted 5:25 p.m. Apr 25, 2022 — Updated 11:22 p.m. Apr 25, 2022

Laura Leslie

, WRAL Capitol Bureau Chief

With early voting for this year's primary beginning Thursday, the airwaves are starting to heat up with political ads.

Many are attack ads. But only one appears to have been paid for by members of its target's own political party, and that's attracting national attention.

A bare-knuckled attack ad against Republican Congressman Madison Cawthorn went on air in his 11th District this past weekend.

FEC documents show the ad, "Madison Cawthorn's Lies," was paid for by Results for NC PAC, which is aligned with another sitting Republican, North Carolina Senator Thom Tillis.

"In perpetual pursuit of celebrity, Cawthorn will lie about anything," the narrator intones, calling the congressman "an attention-seeking embarrassment."

Cawthorn is a first-term congressman, elected in 2020. During his short tenure, he's gone from one controversy to the next – exhorting the crowd at the January 6th insurrection, driving with a revoked license, carrying weapons into places they're banned, and calling Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy a "thug."

He's also crossed swords with his own party's establishment in Washington as well as North Carolina, most recently by claiming his fellow Republicans in DC had invited him to orgies and used drugs in front of him.

Cawthorn has seven Republican challengers in this primary, including state Senator Chuck Edwards, R-Henderson, and Michele Woodhouse, the district's GOP chairwoman and a former Cawthorn supporter.

The state’s Republican establishment has lined up behind Edwards, more or less quietly, at least until now.

"Cawthorn’s antics help him but hurt us. Lying about conservatives, stolen valor. Madison Cawthorn lies for the limelight," the ad concludes.

The "stolen valor" accusation is a reference to Cawthorn’s claim in 2020 that he was accepted to the U.S. Naval Academy. He was not.

The Results for NC PAC is spending $310,000 to blanket western NC broadcast and cable airwaves with the spot. It's a larger media buy than Cawthorn's campaign has yet made in this election.

Tillis endorsed Edwards in March, saying that Cawthorn “has fallen well short of the most basic standards” for a congressional representative. This appears to be the first ad buy by the PAC since Tillis's re-election campaign in 2020.

Cawthorn has the endorsement of former President Donald Trump, reiterated by Trump at a rally in Selma, NC, earlier this month. Cawthorn's campaign did not immediately respond to WRAL News's request for comment.

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