Madison Cawthorn, the 24-year-old CEO of a real estate investment company has pulled a huge upset in the North Carolina runoff election. He pulled off a huge upset against the establishment candidate Lynda Bennett. Bennett was expected to win easily but Cawthorn won in a landslide.
Cawthorn is a cinch to win in November in the heavily Republican district to replace Mark Meadows who left Congress to become President Trump’s chief of staff. He will be one of the youngest members of congress of all time.
Bennett was endorsed by President Trump and Jim Jordan and her loss is considered a huge upset. Bennett won the primary over Cawthorn 23-20 but in the runoff, he defeated her 65-35, a royal shellacking.
The turning point was probably when all four of the candidates who did not make the runoff, all endorsed Cawthorn. It appears that he got the vast majority of votes the also-rans had gotten.
In North Carolina’s primary on March 3, Cawthorn finished second, receiving roughly 20%of the vote, just shy of Bennett, who received roughly 23%. After the state’s primary, however, four candidates who did not qualify for the runoff endorsed Cawthorn, giving his campaign solid momentum in the weeks before the runoff.
Leading up to the race, Cawthorn emphasized his roots in his district, saying in a statement that he “would work tirelessly for smaller, leaner government.”
“A constitutional conservative, Madison is committed to defending the values of faith, family, and freedom,” his campaign website says.
Once on his way to the U.S. Naval Academy, in 2014 Cawthorn was left partially paralyzed after surviving a horrific car accident. Cawthorn credits the tragic incident with building his faith, making him a fighter and allowing him to inspire others, according to his campaign website.
