Last year, Rep. Madison Cawthorn (R-NC) pulled hundreds of thousands of dollars in support of Republican congressional incumbents. But now, as the divisive first-termer suddenly feels the heat ahead of a contentious primary, those accounts are drawing goose eggs.
A new campaign finance filing from Cawthorn’s joint fundraising account with the National Republican Congressional Committee—called “Cawthorn Triumph”—shows zero dollars in receipts for the first three months of the year. A handful of fundraising blitzes last year fueled $673,000 in donations, but the well went dry in October, and Cawthorn Triumph hasn’t raised any money since.
To make matters worse, another new filing shows that Cawthorn’s leadership PAC—“Making A Difference In Service to Our Nation” (MADISON PAC)—has also cooled its activity, reporting only $2,000 in contributions. (That $2,000 came from the PAC’s own treasurer, Thomas Datwyler, who donated in February and also runs the books for the Cawthorn campaign.)
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Both committees have also spent themselves into oblivion, boasting a total $14.52 cash on hand—all of it in the leadership PAC’s account. While Cawthorn’s campaign committee filing won’t come in for another week, he’s burned through much of that money as well, retaining only about 10 percent of the $2.9 million he raised last year.
These two side-pot committees—both broke and lethargic—are additionally significant in that they’re designed to support allies, and so may, to a degree, reflect the election objector’s relationships within his party.
The timing is also curious.
Cawthorn, a gaffe-prone election objector and conspiracy theorist, has never been an establishment favorite. But this year, he’s experiencing a new surge of pressure from within the GOP, some of it aimed at swiping his seat.
As The Daily Beast previously reported, Republican rivals and outside observers alike have noted that the aspiring culture-war flamethrower has found himself increasingly alienated.
Most recently, establishment Republicans, including Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, put Cawthorn in the stockades, after Cawthorn remarked that he’d seen fellow Republicans doing “key bumps” of cocaine and had been invited to orgies starring some of his GOP colleagues.
But last year, as Republican leadership wrangled post-insurrection infighting, Cawthorn’s popularity with the far right yielded a financial boon for the party.
The NRCC farms out its money to Republican incumbents across the country. And in 2021, Cawthorn Triumph shared $372,000 with the group, more than half the total raised. Cawthorn took an $83,000 cut for his own campaign, and another $65,000 went to MADISON PAC.
As for that leadership PAC, its financial activity could also offer a glimpse at Cawthorn’s priorities.
Officials are barred from using leadership PACs to support their own campaigns, and the committees are designed to allow candidates to throw more cash to their friends. Last year, MADISON PAC contributed $45,400 to Cawthorn’s right-wing allies, including Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) and former Rep. Jim Hagedorn (R-MN), an election objector who died in February after contracting COVID-19 on top of a prior cancer diagnosis.
Of course, leadership PACs are also often seen, and sometimes treated, as personal slush funds. And this year, while MADISON PAC has far outspent the $2,000 it raised from its treasurer—more than six times as much—none of it boosted other candidates.
The expenses appear almost entirely related to travel. That includes a late-January trip to Miami, far from Cawthorn’s Smoky Mountain home, where the PAC racked up more than $4,000 in expenses at the JW Marriott and Ritz Carlton. But because the filing doesn’t mention any corresponding fundraising events or transfers to other committees, and news reports from the time don’t appear to account for any Cawthorn activity in the area, it’s unclear how those expenses relate to any PAC activity.
Asked about Cawthorn’s affinity for the Sunshine State, a Republican source with connections to his campaign suggested that his frequent trips reflect efforts to connect with party power brokers. (Cawthorn Triumph banked $18,000 over a series of 10 donations from the president of the Florida Young Republicans.)
“President Trump is down there, and the state has become a major draw for national Republican political figures. It’s the MAGA center of gravity,” the person said. “And the work of Republican officials in the state, namely [Florida Gov. Ron] DeSantis, is being used as a measuring stick for other elected representatives.”
Still, the financial burn rate and election-year slowdown has baffled some insiders. And it’s hard to ignore the financial relationship between Cawthorn and the national party.
For instance, the NRCC hasn’t given Cawthorn a dime for his reelection efforts aside from his cut of the pot last year. And the RNC hasn’t given him any money, ever.
Obviously, those committees focus their resources where they’re needed most. And Cawthorn represents a deep-red district, previously repped by his old mentor, Mark Meadows. Whoever wins the Republican primary there is most likely a lock for the general, and while the national party always supports incumbents, its chief concern is holding the seat; primary fights aren’t typically high on the list.
Cawthorn’s primary path this year might prove another political crucible, however, as a number of local Republicans have stepped up to challenge what they perceive to be a weak and potentially toxic candidate. Party figures have criticized him in private and in public, including Sen. Thom Tillis, a fellow Tar Heel who has backed a Cawthorn challenger in the primary. And Cawthorn waited until the last minute to commit to running again in his district, a hesitation some perceived as jitters about losing a tight race.
Still, the GOP source connected to the campaign wrote off the idea that the fundraising patterns reflect growing rifts within the party, noting that Cawthorn was never an institutional candidate and doesn’t care to be one.
“Madison’s straight talking persona endears him to the MAGA constituency, and he garners much more support from individual donors than from the establishment arm of the party,” he said, accurately characterizing the small-dollar donations that swelled Cawthorn’s accounts on the heels of the Jan. 6 riot. Those numbers, however, dropped over the following quarter.
The Cawthorn insider also dismissed the idea that the numbers could suggest a weak hand heading into rapidly approaching primary, set for May 17.
“Madison’s never really had much need, or desire, for establishment support from the beginning,” he said.
A spokesperson for the Cawthorn campaign did not reply to a request for comment.
