Shortly after losing his primary in May, Representative Madison Cawthorn sent out a rallying cry to the “Dark MAGA” movement—a right-wing revenge fantasy hatched by the alt-right—and vowed to spend his time outside of DC defeating “the cowardly and weak members” of the Republican Party. However, less than two months later, the outgoing freshman lawmaker appears to be facing more pressing issues than “self-profiteering” globalists, seeing as he’s blown through more than half a million dollars of his own money on the campaign trail, according to the Daily Beast.
Since 2019, the North Carolina Republican, who now identifies as a self-employed investor, has spent $817,000 in personal funds on his campaign, including a $207,858 self-funded contribution that was reported in a recent Federal Election Commission filing, per the Asheville Citizen-Times. Of that staggering sum, the Beast’s review of his campaign-finance reports shows he has recouped $261,000, leaving him $556,000 in the red.
Despite suffering an impressively varied string of scandals during the primary, Cawthorn’s report disclosed that he managed to raise almost $4.5 million for his reelection bid—but spent $4.9 million. His campaign had just $1,504 cash on hand as of June 30. The Beast notes that Cawthorn, who appointed himself as his campaign’s treasurer and custodian of records, appears to have overdrawn $200,000 in campaign spending following the May 17 primary. The Cawthorn campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Cawthorn’s financial follies don’t end there. His campaign also improperly spent donations earmarked for the general election, which he was not legally allowed to use, per another Daily Beast report. Saurav Ghosh, a director at the Campaign Legal Center, told the outlet that “Cawthorn put himself in campaign finance hot water when he dipped into the general election funds, and it looks like what he did at the end of the reporting period is use his own funds to bail out his campaign.” According to the Daily Beast, in total, Cawthorn owes more than $220,000 to his donor base as a result of his spending spree, including to House minority leader Kevin McCarthy, Representative Steve Scalise, and GOP megadonors Bernie Marcus and Steve Wynn. According to the Asheville Citizen-Times, he dipped into donor funds to run up $1,812 at a tobacco shop and per the Daily Beast, $1,500 at Chick-fil-A, and $21,000 for lodging in Florida. Additionally, the lawmaker could reportedly face as much as $18,000 in fines, according to FEC guidelines, for filing his campaign finance report a month too late.
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August 19, 2022 at 02:07AM
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Madison Cawthorn’s “Dark MAGA” Prophecy Might Have to Wait Until He Pays His Bills - Vanity Fair
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