{"id":13975,"date":"2025-10-02T12:20:29","date_gmt":"2025-10-02T12:20:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/madison-cawthorn-announces-another-run-for-congress-this-time-in-florida\/"},"modified":"2025-10-02T12:20:29","modified_gmt":"2025-10-02T12:20:29","slug":"madison-cawthorn-announces-another-run-for-congress-this-time-in-florida","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/madison-cawthorn-announces-another-run-for-congress-this-time-in-florida\/","title":{"rendered":"Madison Cawthorn announces another run for Congress, this time in Florida"},"content":{"rendered":"
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By Are Salam<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Former Rep. Madison Cawthorn<\/a>among the youngest people ever elected to the U.S. House, announced Tuesday that he is running again, this time in Florida.<\/p>\n

The 30-year-old Cawthorn, a Republican who represented Asheville and the surrounding region in western North Carolina from 2021 to 2023, is now running to represent the reliably red <\/strong>Fort Meyers area in southwest Florida. That seat is being vacated by Rep. Byron Donalds, who is seeking the GOP nomination in Florida’s 2026 gubernatorial race<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Cawthorn also received widespread attention after saying that people he had “looked up to” in Washington used cocaine and invited him to orgies.<\/p>\n

Cawthorn, who lost his re-election bid<\/a> in North Carolina’s GOP primary in 2022, enters a crowded field in Florida <\/a>that includes former Rep. Chris Collins of New York, who resigned in 2019 after an insider trading scandal<\/a> and was later pardoned by Trump<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“I’m running for Congress to stand with President Trump, defend our conservative values and fight to stop the radical left every single time,” Cawthorn said in his campaign video announcement<\/a>.<\/p>\n

While serving in Congress, Cawthorn pushed false conspiracy theories<\/a> that the 2020 presidential election was stolen and said without evidence that “our election systems continue to be rigged.”<\/p>\n

Scandal has followed Cawthorn in his brief political career. He accrued several traffic violations<\/a> in recent years and was stopped twice in North Carolina at airport security checkpoints with a gun; he pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor<\/a> in one of the gun incidents and wasn’t charged in the other.<\/p>\n

Cawthorn also received widespread attention after saying that people he had “looked up to” in Washington used cocaine and invited him to orgies<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Are Salam<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Erum Salam is a breaking news reporter and producer for BLN Digital. She previously was a breaking news reporter for The Guardian.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n