War of words: Race to replace Mark Meadows takes an ugly turn
The major party candidates seeking the NC11 congressional seat recently left vacant by former Rep. Mark Meadows spent much of the first two debates attacking each other and defending themselves against those attacks, but now that controversial tweets by one of them have resurfaced, there’s even more focus on how the current partisan discord is turning modern political discourse into a war of words that can never be won.
Demonstrators greet Cawthorn before debate
Around 30 demonstrators affiliated with a group called Sunrise North Carolina showed up to a congressional forum held by Southwestern Community College in Sylva on Sept. 9, but they weren’t there to watch — they were there to sound off against the environmental positions of Republican candidate Madison Cawthorn.
Debate Fact-Checker: Zingers, Jabs and Lies
Congressional candidates’ claims rated for truthfulness
By Sally Kestin and Peter H. Lewis
AVL Watchdog
In their first public face-off, the candidates vying for the increasingly competitive 11th district congressional seat, Republican Madison Cawthorn and Democrat Moe Davis, touted their differences on just about all issues and hurled accusations, with each calling the other “fast and loose” with the facts. Who was telling the truth? AVL Watchdog fact-checked some of the claims made at the Sept. 4-5 debates at Western Carolina University and rated them as true, false or misleading.
N.C. 11 candidates face off
Congressional candidates Moe Davis and Madison Cawthorn clashed last week in a pair of debates spanning two days and three hours, covering everything from health care and economics to gun rights and race relations.
Strong support for Cawthorn outside NC-11 debates
Updated 9/11/20, 12:30 p.m.
While N.C. Congressional District 11 candidates Moe Davis and Madison Cawthorn got into a heated debate inside during the “Best in the West” online events Sept. 4-5, the excitement overflowed outside of the venue as well.
Cawthorn mingles with far-right fringe
By Sally Kestin, Tom Fiedler and Peter H. Lewis | AVL Watchdog | Conservative congressional candidate Madison Cawthorn, scheduled to speak Wednesday at the GOP national convention, traveled to Texas last month to visit a private border wall and echoed discredited child sex trafficking claims promoted by the extremist conspiracy theory movement.
Cawthorn’s claims about Davis are ridiculous
Keep electing people who are ideologically too far left or right to reach across the aisle, and we’ll have the same kind of Congress we have today: divided, ineffective, laughable. So despite Madison Cawthorn trying to brand himself as a new face of conservatism, many of his statements since winning the 11th District GOP primary reveal a young man with a narrow, hard-right world view that may make him the darling of a certain segment of his party but will do little to help those in his district or help get Congress moving in a positive direction.
Best in the West: Blue Ridge Public Radio, Mountain Xpress and Smoky Mountain News to host two-day NC11 candidate forum
Republican Madison Cawthorn and Democrat Moe Davis, candidates for the North Carolina congressional seat left vacant by White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, have both agreed to appear at a two-day joint forum hosted by three of the district’s largest media outlets.
Cawthorn responds to sexual assault allegations
An Aug. 13 Instagram post alleges improper behavior by North Carolina Republican congressional candidate Madison Cawthorn during a date six years ago, and although Cawthorn acknowledges the incident and that his actions were inappropriate, he says his accuser is being used by Democrats as an election-year tool.
Candidate’s claim creates false impression
Cawthorn rejected from Naval Academy
By Tom Fiedler
The narrative created by Republican congressional-candidate Madison Cawthorn paints a picture of a bright, young man headed to the U.S. Naval Academy until he was severely injured in an auto crash.