Rep. Madison Cawthorn, who's embraced former President Donald Trump's false claims that the 2020 election was "stolen," is facing a legal challenge that experts say could bar him from holding office.
A complaint filed last month says the North Carolina Republican should be disqualified from seeking re-election to Congress over his support for the Jan. 6 riot.
"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 complaint against Cawthorn to the state Board of Elections said, adding that the events of Jan. 6 "amounted to an insurrection."
Cawthorn is now trying to get the lawsuit dismissed, but election experts say that won’t be easy.
Michael Gerhardt, a political science professor at the University of North Carolina School of Law, said the residents who filed the lawsuit — voters in the district Cawthorn plans to run in this year, different from the one he currently represents — have a strong case.
"There’s a good amount of evidence from Cawthorn’s own mouth that he was supporting an insurrection," Gerhardt said.
The legal debate hinges on a little-used Reconstruction-era clause in the U.S. Constitution, as well as a North Carolina law that lets voters or other candidates challenge the eligibility of candidates if they have a “reasonable suspicion”...
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