Cawthorn was the representative for North Carolina’s 11th congressional district and was a Republican. He served from 2021 to 2022.
Our work to hold Congress accountable only matters if elections are decided by counting votes. President Trump, his senior government advisors, and Republican legislators collaborated to have the 2020 presidential election decided instead by incumbent politicians running in the very same election. Their attempts to suppress entire state-certified vote counts without adjudication in the courts and using a disinformation campaign of lies and conspiracy theories was a months-long, multifarious attempted coup.
Cawthorn was among the Republican legislators who participated in the attempted coup. On January 6, 2021 in the hours after the violent insurrection at the Capitol, Cawthorn voted to reject the state-certified election results of Arizona and/or Pennsylvania (states narrowly won by Democrats), which could have changed the outcome of the election. These legislators pumped the lies and preposterous legal arguments about the election that motivated the January 6, 2021 violent insurrection at the Capitol. The January 6, 2021 violent insurrection at the Capitol, led on the front lines by militant white supremacy groups, attempted to prevent President-elect Joe Biden from taking office by disrupting Congress’s count of electors.
Misconduct
In 2022, Rep. Cawthorn was cited for driving with a revoked license and cited for speeding at least twice His court date is May 6, 2022. On May 17, 2022, Cawthorn lost his primary. On May 23, the House Committee on Ethics reported that Cawthorn had paid relevant fines and closed the investigation.
| Mar. 9, 2022 | Rep. Cawthorn was cited for driving with a revoked license and cited for speeding at least twice. |
| May. 17, 2022 | Cawthorn lost his primary. |
| May. 23, 2022 | House Committee on Ethics published a report indicating that since they had already paid one fine and intended to pay any additional ones, the committee would end it's investigation |
![Photo of Rep. Madison Cawthorn [R-NC11, 2021-2022]](/static/legislator-photos/456833-200px.jpeg)
Analysis
Legislative Metrics
Read our 2022 Report Card for Cawthorn.
Ideology–Leadership Chart
Cawthorn is shown as a purple triangle ▲ in our ideology-leadership chart below. Each dot was a member of the House of Representatives in 2022 positioned according to our ideology score (left to right) and our leadership score (leaders are toward the top).
The chart is based on the bills Cawthorn sponsored and cosponsored from Jan 3, 2017 to Dec 27, 2022. See full analysis methodology.
Enacted Legislation
Cawthorn was the primary sponsor of 1 bill that was enacted:
Does 1 not sound like a lot? Very few bills are ever enacted — most legislators sponsor only a handful that are signed into law. But there are other legislative activities that we don’t track that are also important, including offering amendments, committee work and oversight of the other branches, and constituent services.
We consider a bill enacted if one of the following is true: a) it is enacted itself, b) it has a companion bill in the other chamber (as identified by Congress) which was enacted, or c) if at least about half of its provisions were incorporated into bills that were enacted (as determined by an automated text analysis, applicable beginning with bills in the 110th Congress).
Bills Sponsored
Issue Areas
Cawthorn sponsored bills primarily in these issue areas:
Immigration (16%) Armed Forces and National Security (16%) Health (16%) International Affairs (16%) Government Operations and Politics (16%) Civil Rights and Liberties, Minority Issues (8%) Labor and Employment (8%) Education (5%)
Recently Introduced Bills
Cawthorn recently introduced the following legislation:
- H.Res. 1472 (117th): Clarifying the application of rule XXI of the Rules of the House …
- H.R. 9298 (117th): To direct the Secretary of Labor to conduct a study on implementing …
- H.R. 8999 (117th): To amend the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970 to provide …
- H.R. 8915 (117th): BOND Act of 2022
- H.R. 8638 (117th): ORR Act of 2022
- H.R. 8604 (117th): Free City Commission Act
- H.R. 8603 (117th): To direct the President to take such actions as may be necessary …
View All » | View Cosponsors »
Most legislation has no activity after being introduced.
Voting Record
Key Votes
Missed Votes
From Jan 2021 to Dec 2022, Cawthorn missed 48 of 998 roll call votes, which is 4.8%. This is much worse than the median of 2.0% among the lifetime records of representatives serving in Dec 2022. The chart below reports missed votes over time.
We don’t track why legislators miss votes, but it’s often due to medical absenses, major life events, and running for higher office.
Primary Sources
The information on this page is originally sourced from a variety of materials, including:
- unitedstates/congress-legislators, a community project gathering congressional information
- The House and Senate websites, for committee membership and voting records
- Office of Rep. Cawthorn for the photo
- GovInfo.gov, for sponsored bills
