Madison Cawthorn illegally spent campaign funds

Fresno CA

Description

Outgoing Rep. Madison Cawthorn (R-NC) has illegally spent campaign funds and now cannot afford to repay supporters, according to a report. During the waning days of his reelection campaign, the beleaguered Cawthorn was apparently struggling with low cash on hands and, out of desperation, tapped into a precarious source of funding. His campaign used donations marked for a general election race in a last-ditch attempt to help him prevail from his heated primary race, but now the bill has come due, and he has to pay the piper with little means of doing so. Under federal law, candidates are permitted to raise money for primary and general election races simultaneously, but the funding must be used for the race for which it is designated — otherwise, it must be paid back. Now that Cawthorn has lost his primary, he is required by law to refund those donations, but his campaign has already depleted much of those funds, making it difficult for him to pay it all back.