RALEIGH, NC –
U.S. Representative Madison Kotorn’s first term lost her Republican primary on Tuesday for Senator Chuck Edwards after pro-Donald Trump’s personal and political mistakes turned out to be unfortunate for voters.
Kotorn has called on Edwards to cede the primary election in Edwards’ 11th Congressional District, Kotorn’s campaign spokesman Luke Ball told the Associated Press. The AP later announced the Edwards race against Kotorn and six other Republican candidates.
“Despite all the odds, we fought hard to win this election and provide clear conservative leadership for the mountains,” Edwards said in a press release. “Now we will harness that energy, unite as a party, and keep that place in Republican hands in November.”
Kauhorn, who rose to national prominence after winning a seat in the mountain region in 2020 at the age of 25, said he would support Edwards in the general election. “It’s time for the NC-11 GOP to unite behind the Republican ticket to win the Democratic nomination this November,” he tweeted Tuesday night.
Edwards owns a fast food franchise that is advancing in the November election against Democrat Jasmine Beach-Ferrara, who won Tuesday’s Democratic primary for six candidates.
U.S. Sen. Tom Tillis, who backed Edwards, said Cawthorn was a disgrace to his constituents.
“Republicans chose Chuck Edwards tonight because he is the epitome of mountain values who will fight for them every day in Congress with honor and integrity,” Tillis said in a press release.
Kotorn has faced negative publicity about speeding and gun violations, as well as calling Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky a thug. He also infuriated fellow Republicans in Congress when he claimed in a podcast that he had been invited to an orgy in Washington.
And his initial decision to run for re-election elsewhere – only to return to the 11th district – was not to the liking of many locals.
In the days following his inauguration in early 2021, Kotorn spoke at the Stop Theft Rally, questioning Joe Biden’s victory in the presidential election leading up to the January 6 Capitol uprising.
Kothorn soon became a leading spokesman for Trump’s “America First” policy and conservatives in the cultural wars. Trump supported him.
In addition to remarking that he had been invited to an orgy, Kotorn said he had seen leaders in the quit movement use cocaine. Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy publicly rebuked him for his remarks.
Cawthorn has been stopped by police for driving three times since October and caught with weapons at airport checkpoints twice since last year, including last month. And videos released in the last weeks of the campaign show Cowthorn in sexually suggestive poses that he said were a few years ago – designed to be funny and nothing more.
Cothorne acknowledged that speeding and guns were omissions, but said the videos were part of a “drip campaign” by his political enemies, including some Republicans, to flood the area with negative stories.
Kotorn was seen as a rising star by many conservatives when he won the primary runoff in 2020 for the post vacated by Mark Meadows, Trump’s chief of staff.
Kotorn, who uses a wheelchair after being partially paralyzed by a car accident as a teenager, turned 25 – the minimum age required by the constitution to serve in the House – during the 2020 campaign.
In a post on the eve of the election on his website Truth Social, Trump asked primary voters to support him again: “Recently, he made some stupid mistakes that I don’t believe he will make again … let’s give Madison a second chance!”
Speaking to reporters earlier Tuesday night at his campaign headquarters in Hendersonville, with the result still uncertain, Cothorn said Trump’s support was solid.
“I have found that most people in politics, if it is not politically appropriate for them, they will turn their backs on you for a moment,” he said. “But no matter what you face, when Donald Trump holds your back, he protects you to the end.
Kotorn’s biggest political mistake may have occurred last fall when he decided to run for another seat in the US House of Representatives, which could lead to an easier re-election offer, only to return to 11th District, when redirection lawsuits shifted the lines again. Edwards and others accuse Kotorn of trying to distance himself from his constituents for political convenience.
Edwards, 61, runs the McDonald’s franchise in West North Carolina. He joined the state Senate in 2016 and rose up the ladder in the chamber, taking over presidencies and more substantial measures in recent years, including small business, weapons and immigration.
He advocated for legislation imposed by Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper, which would require all county sheriffs to assist federal immigration and customs services by detaining prisoners they believe are in the country illegally.
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