From Staff Reports

Western North Carolina Congressman-elect Madison Cawthorn, R-Hendersonville, announced Dec. 21 that he plans to contest the presidential election results when Congress meets on Jan. 6 to count the electoral votes.

What’s more, Cawthorn warned other Republicans that he personally will fund their primary challengers if they do not call for “fair” elections.

The Raleigh News & Observer stated in its news story on the plan, “The challenge stands no chance of overturning President-elect Joe Biden’s victory against President Donald Trump.” 

In addition, the N&O reported that N.C. Rep. Ted Budd, R-Davie County, vowed Dec. 22 also to contest the election result.

In a Dec. 22 letter sent to his Republican House colleagues in North Carolina, Budd wrote, “The people of North Carolina chose Donald Trump to be re-elected. We should not allow the lack of election integrity in other states (to) deprive us of the president that we voted for.”

The N&O also noted,“‘Yes, I plan to object on January 6th,’ Budd wrote in a tweet that outlined what he felt are issues with the November vote, including ballots accepted after Election Day, the removal of voter safeguards and outdated voter rolls.”

The new Congress will be sworn in Jan. 3. Cawthorn, 25, will be the youngest member of Congress. Budd won a third term in the House in November, representing the 13th district, which stretches from Davie to Person County. “He (Budd) is considering a run for U.S. Senate in 2022, his spokesman confirmed Monday (Dec. 21),” the N&O reported.

Meanwhile, Cawthorn said, “I will be contesting the election,” during remarks Dec. 21 at Turning Point USA’s Student Action Summit , a conservative youth conference, held in West Palm Beach, Fla.

“And not only that, I have a message for all other Republicans across the country. If you are not on the record calling for fair, free and just elections now and in the future, I will come to your district, and I will fund a primary opponent against you.”

Cawthorn wrote later Dec. 21 on Twitter, “The right to vote in a free and fair election is the cornerstone of our Republic. Attempts to subvert the constitutional authority of state legislatures to conduct elections strikes at the very heart of representative government. I choose to stand in the breach, to fight for us.”

From Staff Reports

ALPHARETTA, Ga. — Speaking on Fox News on Dec. 15 from Apharetta, Western North Carolina’s U.S. Rep.-elect Madison Cawthorn accused the Rev. Raphael Warnock, a Georgia-born U.S. Senate candidate, of masquerading as a Southern pastor to win votes.

Cawthorn, a Republican based in Hendersonville, N.C., “called the long-time pastor’s native Georgia roots into question,” Newsweek.com reported.

Cawthorn’s crticisms “echoed” those of President Donald Trump and Warnock’s opponent, GOP Senator Kelly Loeffler, by claiming that Warnock is a “radical’s radical,” Newsweek.com noted.

He added that Warnock can “say he’s a pastor,” while being “all about abortion.”

In its coverage of Cawthorn’s remarks, Newsweek.com wrote, “Warnock, 51, was born in Savannah, Georgia, in July 1969, about 26 years before Cawthorn was born.”

Cawthorn explained that “the reason I’m coming down here” from North Carolina is to prevent Democratic Senate candidates Warnock and Jon Ossoff from giving their party a majority vote in the upper chamber.

If the two Democrats win the Jan. 5 Senature runoff election, he said the Democrats will essentially take control of Washington itself.

Cawthorn asserted that only Republicans Senators Loeffler and David Perdue “represent the values” held by Southern conservatives and “most” Americans nationwide.

“You see this Warnock fella who is coming down here and disguising himself as some moderate pastor from the South who doesn’t really believe in these radical ideas,” Cawthorn told Fox, according to Newsweek.com.

“But, if you look at him, really, what he actually believes, he’s a radical’s radical. He wants to defund our police. He says he’s a pastor, but he’s all about abortion. This is somebody who does not represent what real Americans believe in.”

At the end of its story, Newsweek.com said that Cawthorn’s office did not respond to its request to define what  “real Americans” or being “all about abortion” means.

In turn, Warnock also received criticism from fellow black Southern pastors on Dec. 14, when a group of 25 Georgia pastors signed a letter to Warnock, written by Bishop Garland Hunt, charging that Warnock’s abortion stance contradicts their Christian teachings.

“As a Christian pastor and black leader, you have a duty to denounce the evil of abortion, which kills a disproportionate number of black children, Your open advocacy of abortion is a scandal to the faith and to the black community,” the letter to Warnock stated.