Rep. Madison Cawthorn.
AP Photo/Andrew Harnik
- 11 North Carolina voters are trying to stop Rep. Cawthorn from running for reelection, citing his Jan. 6 speech.
- They issued a challenge to the State Board of Elections on Monday.
- They say Cawthorn violated the 14th Amendment, which forbids lawmakers from engaging or supporting an insurrection.
Eleven North Carolina voters filed a challenge to block GOP Rep. Madison Cawthorn from running for reelection in 2024, saying his actions on January 6, 2021, disqualified him from occupying the role.
Cawthorn, who represents North Carolina’s 11th congressional district, made baseless claims about the 2020 election at the “Save America Rally,” which preceded the Capitol riot.
In a challenge submitted to the North Carolina State Board of Elections on Monday, lawyers representing the 11 voters argued that Cawthorn’s actions before and on January 6, 2021, violated the 14th Amendment.
The amendment, which was adopted in 1869, says that no one “who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress … shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof.”
The challenge detailed Cawthorn’s speech at the rally, in which he told Donald Trump supporters: “This crowd has some fight.”
Cawthorn speaks from the Ellipse in Washington, DC, on January 6, 2021.
Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call/Getty Images
It also included other comments that Cawthorn made on social media or published reports that provided a “reasonable suspicion or belief” that he helped facilitate the insurrection.
“Challengers have reasonable suspicion that Representative Cawthorn was involved in efforts to intimidate Congress and the Vice-President into rejecting valid electoral votes and subvert the essential constitutional function of an orderly and peaceful transition of power,” the document said.
The five-member State Board of Elections, which oversees the scrutiny of candidates’ qualifications, is expected to meet on Wednesday, the Associated Press reported.
The voters are from North Carolina’s newly-drawn 13th District, where Cawthorn plans on running in 2024.
Ron Fein, legal director of Free Speech for People, an election- and campaign-finance reform group backing the voters, told the AP that this was the first legal challenge to a candidate’s eligibility under the 14th Amendment since the Civil War.
Fein also said that his group intends to file against more members of Congress who were associated with the Capitol riot in the coming months, the AP reported.
Representatives for Cawthorn did not immediately respond to Insider’s request for comment.
Luke Ball, a spokesperson for Cawthorn, told AP in response to the challenge: “Over 245,000 patriots from western North Carolina elected Congressman Cawthorn to serve them in Washington.”
“A dozen activists who are comically misinterpreting and twisting the 14th Amendment for political gain will not distract him from that service.”
Cawthorn, 26, became the youngest member of Congress when he took office on January 3, 2021.
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