Who is Madison Cawthorn?

David Madison Cawthorn (born August 1, 1995) is an American politician serving as the United States representative for North Carolina's 11th congressional district. A member of the Republican Party, Cawthorn was elected to Congress in 2020. The youngest member of Congress since Jed Johnson Jr., Cawthorn is also the first member of the House of Representatives to be born in the 1990s.

Cawthorn was born on August 1, 1995, in Asheville, North Carolina, to Priscilla and Roger Cawthorn. He was homeschooled in Hendersonville, North Carolina, until 12th grade and played football in the Asheville Saints league, a homeschooled high school student league. As a teenager, he worked at Chick-fil-A restaurant.

In 2014, Cawthorn was seriously injured while returning from a spring break trip to Florida at the age of 18. He was riding as a passenger in a BMW X3 SUV near Daytona Beach, Florida, when his friend Bradley Ledford fell asleep at the wheel. With Cawthorn's feet on the dash, the SUV crashed into a concrete barrier. In a 2017 speech, Cawthorn said Ledford had left him to "die in a fiery grave"; Ledford openly objected to this, saying he pulled Cawthorn from the wreckage in 2021 after he escaped from the vehicle. In his statements, Cawthorn stated that he "had no memory of the accident", while Ledford said he had helped save an unconscious Cawthorn. In the same 2017 speech, Cawthorn announced that the accident was "declared dead at the scene," but in the official crash report, Cawthorn was listed as "incapable." Injuries from the accident partially paralyzed Cawthorn, and he now uses a wheelchair. He said he had accrued $3 million in medical debt during his recovery; He received this amount as a settlement from an insurance company, among other payments, and is seeking an additional $2021 million by February 30.

U.S. Representative Mark Meadows nominated Cawthorn to the United States Naval Academy in 2014, but his application was rejected before his car accident in 2014; During the congressional campaign, Cawthorn claimed in his advertisements that the accident had "misleaded" his plans to join the Academy. Cawthorn later said that at the time of the injury he only knew that he had been nominated for the Academy and was waiting to be accepted, and he never said so. had been accepted before the accident occurred, but could reapply later. But in a lawsuit statement, Cawthorn admitted that he was denied before the accident.

In the fall of 2016, Cawthorn attended Patrick Henry College, majoring in political science, but mostly got D grades and dropped out. He said his grades were low because his injuries hindered his ability to learn. Cawthorn said in a statement, “You know, I had brain damage after the accident, I think it definitely slowed my brain down a bit. It made me less intelligent. And the pain made it very difficult to read and study.” He also said that he broke up due to "heartbreak" after his fiancee broke up with him.

Cawthorn describes himself as a Christian. He has an older brother, Zachary.

Cawthorn married Cristina Bayardelle, a college student and competitive CrossFit athlete, in a civil ceremony in December 2020 and then in an open-air ceremony in April 2021. In December 2021, Cawthorn announced their divorce.

Cawthorn has claimed to have trained in wheelchair races for the 2020 Summer Paralympic Games but has never competed at the qualifying level and is not on a team.

In August 2020, during Cawthorn's campaign for Congress, several women accused him of sexually offensive behavior, sexual misconduct, and sexual assault. Katrina Krulikas recounted an incident when she was 17 and Cawthorn was 19 when she pressured him to sit on her lap and forcibly kissed him twice, and she resisted. Cawthorn didn't deny the allegations, but said, "I tried to kiss her, it's perfectly normal, just in a flirty way," adding, "I feel bad if I make her feel insecure," but questioned it. timing of the claim. His campaign described Krulikas' allegations as politically motivated, which Krulikas denied.

After Krulikas filed their allegations, three other women filed sexual harassment allegations against Cawthorn, including force grabbing and kissing. One woman said that when Cawthorn turned down her sexual offers, she called her a "little blonde, slutty American girl."

On October 17, 2020, a group of Patrick Henry College alumni published a public letter accusing Cawthorn of “sexually predatory conduct,” as well as vandalism and lying while he was a student there for little more than a semester. The letter initially had 10 signatories, but the number grew to over 150 in less than a week. Cawthorn claimed that most of the signers did not know him personally, and that his campaign had sent a letter of support signed by six alumni, two of whom worked for Cawthorn's campaign. Cawthorn's response letter hinted at the support of Michael Farris, former President of Patrick Henry College; Farris declined the letter of support and asked not to be associated with it.

A February 2021 BuzzFeed News survey found 20 people who said Cawthorn abused female classmates during college; Reporters spoke to four women who said they had abused them. Cawthorn allegedly drove the women to remote areas off campus, often recklessly while asking sexual questions, which he referred to as "fun rides." Two assistants said they warned the women to avoid Cawthorn and not get in his car. A male acquaintance said that Cawthorn bragged about pulling a woman into his lap and sticking his finger between his legs.