The North Carolina State Board of Elections has asserted that it has the right to determine whether Rep. Madison Cawthorn (R-North Carolina) is disqualified from running for office based on his role in the plot to overturn the 2020 election.
A group of 11 state residents who reside in North Carolina’s newly-created 13th congressional district, where Cawthorn intends to run, filed a complaint with the state elections board last month. The complaint contends that Cawthorn is ineligible to compete in this year’s midterm races and cites the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which bars any individual who has taken an oath as a member of the U.S. Congress from serving if they have “engaged in insurrection or rebellion against” the country.
Cawthorn’s involvement in the attempted overthrow of the 2020 presidential election fits those parameters, the 11 residents said.
After Trump lost the 2020 election to President Joe Biden, Cawthorn attended dozens of meetings with members of the Trump administration and other lawmakers, discussing ways that the then-outgoing president could overturn the results. Cawthorn also spoke at a rally outside the White House on January 6, 2021, directly before the attack on the U.S. Capitol building; in his speech, he urged Trump loyalists to “lightly threaten” lawmakers and to demand that they back so-called “election integrity.”
“Say [to members of Congress certifying the election results], ‘if you don’t support election integrity, I’m coming after you. Madison Cawthorn’s coming after you. Everybody’s coming after you,'” Cawthorn told Trump loyalists briefly before they breached the Capitol building.
After the complaint from North Carolina residents was submitted to the state elections board, Cawthorn sued the panel, alleging that they did not have the authority to weigh in on the issue and that doing so would violate his First Amendment rights.
On Monday, the North Carolina State Board of Elections responded to Cawthorn’s complaint, asserting that they had the ability to rule on the matter.
The panel did not indicate how it planned to rule, but noted that it had the right to decide whether or not Cawthorn is eligible to run for office based on the 14th Amendment’s parameters. Cawthorn’s claims of “burden” were “dubious,” the panel said, and were ultimately “outweighed by the interest of the state and its people.”
If the residents’ challenge moves forward, it could mean that Cawthorn will have to testify under oath before the state board to prove that he wasn’t “engaged in insurrection or rebellion” despite his role in the plot to overturn the 2020 election.
Truthout Is Preparing to Meet Trump’s Agenda With Resistance at Every Turn
Dear Truthout Community,
If you feel rage, despondency, confusion and deep fear today, you are not alone. We’re feeling it too. We are heartsick. Facing down Trump’s fascist agenda, we are desperately worried about the most vulnerable people among us, including our loved ones and everyone in the Truthout community, and our minds are racing a million miles a minute to try to map out all that needs to be done.
We must give ourselves space to grieve and feel our fear, feel our rage, and keep in the forefront of our mind the stark truth that millions of real human lives are on the line. And simultaneously, we’ve got to get to work, take stock of our resources, and prepare to throw ourselves full force into the movement.
Journalism is a linchpin of that movement. Even as we are reeling, we’re summoning up all the energy we can to face down what’s coming, because we know that one of the sharpest weapons against fascism is publishing the truth.
There are many terrifying planks to the Trump agenda, and we plan to devote ourselves to reporting thoroughly on each one and, crucially, covering the movements resisting them. We also recognize that Trump is a dire threat to journalism itself, and that we must take this seriously from the outset.
Last week, the four of us sat down to have some hard but necessary conversations about Truthout under a Trump presidency. How would we defend our publication from an avalanche of far right lawsuits that seek to bankrupt us? How would we keep our reporters safe if they need to cover outbreaks of political violence, or if they are targeted by authorities? How will we urgently produce the practical analysis, tools and movement coverage that you need right now — breaking through our normal routines to meet a terrifying moment in ways that best serve you?
It will be a tough, scary four years to produce social justice-driven journalism. We need to deliver news, strategy, liberatory ideas, tools and movement-sparking solutions with a force that we never have had to before. And at the same time, we desperately need to protect our ability to do so.
We know this is such a painful moment and donations may understandably be the last thing on your mind. But we must ask for your support, which is needed in a new and urgent way.
We promise we will kick into an even higher gear to give you truthful news that cuts against the disinformation and vitriol and hate and violence. We promise to publish analyses that will serve the needs of the movements we all rely on to survive the next four years, and even build for the future. We promise to be responsive, to recognize you as members of our community with a vital stake and voice in this work.
Please dig deep if you can, but a donation of any amount will be a truly meaningful and tangible action in this cataclysmic historical moment.
We’re with you. Let’s do all we can to move forward together.
With love, rage, and solidarity,
Maya, Negin, Saima, and Ziggy