CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Challenges seeking to bar U.S. Rep. Madison Cawthorn from running for reelection cannot move forward as long as Cawthorn remains a candidate in the district he filed in, which has now been moved halfway across the state, the N.C. State Board of Elections said Thursday.
The challenges argue that Cawthorn should be disqualified from running for office because of what they allege is his involvement in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. Cawthorn denies being involved in the attack.
Cawthorn, a first-term Republican who was elected in 2020 from what was then North Carolina’s 11th Congressional District, in the westernmost part of the state, filed in December to run for a second term from the newly drawn 13th district enacted by the Republican-controlled legislature in November.
After months of redistricting litigation, however, a panel of trial court judges adopted a remedial congressional map on Wednesday that moves the 13th district to the Triangle. The new 13th district, where Cawthorn is still a candidate as of Thursday, now encompasses parts of Wake, Johnston, Harnett and Wayne counties.
In a letter to attorneys representing 13 North Carolina voters who filed complaints challenging Cawthorn’s eligibility to run for reelection in January and February, Katelyn Love, general counsel for the State Board of Elections, said that since none of the challengers currently reside in the new 13th district, they are no longer qualified under state law to challenge Cawthorn’s candidacy.
“A congressional candidate need not be a resident of the district they seek to represent, but a challenger must be a resident of that district to file a proper challenge to a congressional candidate,” Love wrote.
State law defines challengers as: “Any qualified voter registered in the same district as the office for which the candidate has filed or petitioned.”
Candidate filing for the 2022 election resumed on Thursday after being halted in December because of the lawsuits filed against the congressional and legislative political maps drawn by Republican lawmakers last year.
If Cawthorn withdraws from the 13th district and files to run in another district, presumably in the western part of the state, voters registered in that district would need to file new challenges against his reelection bid, elections board spokesperson Patrick Gannon told The News & Observer.
In the meantime, the elections board won’t appoint a panel to hear the challenges filed earlier this year, Love told attorneys for the challengers on Thursday.
The complaints have the support of former N.C. Supreme Court Chief Justice James Exum Jr., a Democrat, as well as former N.C. Supreme Court Justice Bob Orr, a former Republican who is now unaffiliated.
Orr is also one of three former judges who were chosen by the trial court considering the maps to serve as so-called “special masters” — legal consultants who were tasked with helping the panel of judges decide which set of redrawn maps to adopt for the 2022 election.
The trial court on Wednesday approved maps for state House and Senate seats passed last week by the General Assembly, but adopted a different congressional map drawn by Orr and the other special masters.
