Republican Madison Cawthorn becomes youngest Congress member

Madison Cawthorn, a 25-year-old Republican known as “Trump’s golden boy”, has been elected the youngest member of US Congress.

US President Donald Trump’s “golden boy” Madison Cawthorn has won the race for Congress in North Carolina – becoming its youngest member at just 25 years old.

Mr Cawthorn defeated 62-year-old Democrat Moe Davis – a retired Air Force Colonel and former Guantanamo Bay prosecutor – in the state’s 11th Congressional District, after a surprise win at the primaries earlier this year.

When Mr Cawthorn – who earlier tweeted that he would, until his “dying breath”, “defend your freedom in Washington” – was declared victorious, his reaction was a mere three words: “Cry more, lib.”

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Cry more, lib.

— Madison Cawthorn (@CawthornforNC) November 4, 2020

He’ll now replace 31-year-old Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez – a democrat representing New York in the House of Representatives – as the youngest member of Congress, being the minimum age set forth in the Constitution to serve in the House.

Mr Cawthorn will serve in the seat previously held by Mr Trump’s chief of staff, Mark Meadows.

“The days of AOC and the far left misleading the next generation of Americans are numbered,” he said in a prepared victory statement.

“Tonight, the voters of Western North Carolina chose to stand for freedom and a new generation of leadership in Washington.”

He added that now is not a time to “settle scores, but to secure the future”.

“Rather than tearing each other down, we need to lift each other up. The scope and magnitude of our challenges are too great to tolerate a dysfunctional status quo. The fight ahead isn’t against individuals – our fellows Americans – but destructive ideas that should stay in the ash heap of history,” the statement read.

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Madison Cawthorn has been elected the youngest member of US Congress at the age of 25. Picture: Committee on Arrangements for the 2020 Republican National Committee via Getty Images

Mr Cawthorn has been referred to as US President Donald Trump’s “golden boy” – but has also repeatedly criticised the Republican Party. Picture: Committee on Arrangements for the 2020 Republican National Committee via Getty Images

According to Politico, Mr Cawthorn – the paraplegic survivor of a near-fatal car crash when he was 18 – centred his campaign on a “scathing critique of his own party, calling it xenophobic, feckless and devoid of empathy”.

But he’s also aligned himself with the President – a man who has been accused, on multiple occasions, of embodying all three of those traits.

“I definitely am running against the Republican Party,” he said in an interview last week.

“They’re a party that doesn’t try to tackle real issues. They are a party that always says no to things.”

Speaking to The New York Timesafter he won his primary back in June, Mr Cawthorn said, “I believe I can carry the message of conservatism in a way that doesn’t seem so abrasive – that has better packaging, I would say, better messaging.”

Reports have noted that social media posts of Mr Cawthorn's referred to Adolf Hitler as “the Fuhrer” and said that visiting Hitler’s German vacation home, a “bucket list” experience of his, “did not disappoint”.

Mr Cawthorn has also been accused by multiple women of sexual misconduct, with public relations consultants on his campaign hitting back and calling the allegations “(Brett) Kavanaugh-like character assassination”.