Madison Cawthorn, who received an endorsement from Former President Donald Trump, lost his bid at reelection in the Republican primary for North Carolina’s 11th Congressional District on Tuesday, falling to Sen. Chuck Edwards.
Cawthorn, 26, had been the youngest member of Congress in history, but faced a wave of scandals in the past few months. He appeared on a podcast interview in March, and claimed to have been invited to an orgy in Washington, D.C.
In the interview with the "Warrior Poet Society" podcast, Cawthorn also claimed to have seen other government leaders do cocaine in front of him.
"Then all of a sudden you get invited -- 'We're going to have a sexual get-together at one of our homes, you should come.' ... What did you just ask me to come to? And then you realize they're asking you to come to an orgy," Cawthorn said.
"Some of the people leading on the movement to try and remove addiction in our country, and then you watch them do a key bump of cocaine right in front of you. And it's like, this is wild."
Cawthorn also came under fire after he was featured in a handful of leaked nude photos and videos that made their rounds on the internet over the last month. He then called the videos "blackmail" and attempted to explain them in a tweet.
"Years ago, in this video, I was being crass with a friend, trying to be funny," Cawthorn tweeted on May 4. "We were acting foolish, and joking."
Spokesperson Luke Ball told CNN that Cawthorn conceded to Edwards on Tuesday night via phone call. Edwards had received support from North Carolina Sen. Thom Tillis, state Senate leader Phil Berger, and other Republicans in North Carolina.
"I received a call from Congressman Cawthorn just a few of minutes ago. Just as I expected, he presented himself in a very classy and humble way and offered his support to our campaign in absolutely anyway that we can use him," Edwards said.
Despite the wave of scandals, Trump posted to his social media platform Truth Social and made it clear he was still supporting Cawthorn for the primary election.
"When Madison was first elected to Congress, he did a great job," Trump said, according to The Hill. "Recently, he made some foolish mistakes, which I don’t believe he’ll make again…let’s give Madison a second chance!"
House minority leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) told Axios in March that he lost trust in Cawthorn after the orgy and cocaine usage claims.
"I just told him he's lost my trust, he's gonna have to earn it back, and I laid out everything I find is unbecoming," McCarthy said. "And, you can't just say, 'You can't do this again.' I mean, he's, he's got a lot of members very upset."
McCarthy added that Cawthorn told him that some of the remarks were "exaggerated."
"In the interview, he claims he watched people do cocaine. Then when he comes in he tells me, he says he thinks he saw maybe a staffer in a parking garage from 100 yards away," McCarthy said.
"It's just frustrating. There's no evidence behind his statements. And when I sit down with him... I told him you can't make statements like that, as a member of Congress, that affects everybody else and the country as a whole."
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