Madison Cawthorn got himself booted out of Congress earlier this year, part of a rough 2022 for fringe MAGA celebrities tying their political fates to Donald Trump. Despite making basically every Republican in leadership angry and probably breaking election finance laws in the process of losing his campaign, Cawthorn is sure that the best is yet to come in his young political career.
With midterms over and Trump eying up a presidential run in 2024, though, there isn’t much for an unemployed Cawthorn to do beyond dabble in some bland culture war nonsense. But fear not, because the now-former representative says he’s going to run for… something again soon enough. In an interview on Tomi Lahren’s show, Cawthorn reminded everyone that he’s not going anywhere, no matter how much Kevin McCarthy hates him.
Madison Cawthorn says he will be back: “Right now, I want to start a family. But I love my country too much to just hang my hat up. I have so much support around the country. I’m definitely not going to sit this out. I have plans to return back to office.” pic.twitter.com/1GLB8x3nzY
— Ron Filipkowski
(@RonFilipkowski) December 2, 2022
“Right now, I want to start a family. I enjoy doing business and stuff outside of the public sector,” Cawthorn said. “But I love my country too much to just hang my hat up.”
Cawthorn pointed to all the people who like him around the country, many of whom apparently do not reside in the 11th District of North Carolina.
“I have so much support around the country. I have great patriots that supported me even in my defeat,” he said. “I’m definitely not going to sit this out. I have plans to return back to office.”
Cawthorn said he wasn’t sure if it would be a return attempt at a congressional seat or something else, but it’s certainly an interesting declaration coming off a very humbling loss. And it speaks to the disconnect many of the more MAGA-y Republicans have found in more recent election cycles. While attaching yourself to Trump gets you attention from “around the country,” as Cawthorn noted, it doesn’t necessarily mean you have it in the places you actually should have it to get votes.
Garnering that national support doesn’t mean you’re actually addressing the concerns of people voting for you, which means much tighter races than anticipated. So really all it means right now is that we’ll keep hearing from Cawthorn about a lot of different, probably very pointless, things in an effort to stay in the national eye so he can eventually lose another local race. Fun!