Representative Chuck Edwards, a Waynesville, N.C., Republican whose re-election website boasts that his “Mountain Values Will Change D.C., is dropping his re-election bid after being censured by the U.S. House for sleazy behavior toward young, female members of his staff.
“After much prayer and reflection, I’ve decided to withdraw from my re-election campaign,” Edwards wrote on social media at 3:32 a.m. Wednesday. “I will complete my current term.”
The decision came after the House Ethics Committee had recommended on Monday, Aug. 3, 2026, that he be censured for “persistent unprofessional and inappropriate conduct towards two young female staffers.”
The ethics committee report detailed how Mr. Edwards would make “comments” about the women’s “appearance and dress,” shower them with “lavish and recurrent gifts,” invite them to “intimate dinners and vacations” and send notes about his “effusive affection.”
Both women received numerous gifts from the 65-year-old Edwards, including jewelry totaling over $1,000, “designer purses, guns, shoes, flowers, a laptop and cell phone, KitchenAid mixer, robotic vacuums, vacations, tickets to performances, and one-on-one dinners,” according to the ethics committee’s report.
According to the report, the two female staffers were “uncomfortable with his behavior, but were put in an untenable position by virtue of his status as their boss and a member of Congress.”
Edwards, who is married, replaced Madison Cawthorn, whose many ethical and moral conundrums while in the same office included leaked photos of him wearing women’s lingerie and a separate video showing him behaving crudely in bed.
Cawthorn was also ticketed in his home state multiple times for speeding and driving with a revoked license.
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