North Carolina Rep. Madison Cawthorn, a conservative firebrand and the youngest member of Congress, began attracting national attention even before he was first elected two years ago.
Once a rising star in the Republican Party, Cawthorn has just a few weeks left in office after losing his primary in May.
In 2020, Cawthorn had all the makings of a rising star: He defeated a Trump-backed GOP candidate in the primary for North Carolina's 11th District and later landed himself a speaking role at the Republican National Convention.
"I say to Americans who love our country, young and old: Be a radical for liberty," Cawthorn said in his speech. "And be a radical for our Republic, for which I stand, one nation under God, with liberty and justice for all."
"He was on the forefront of the national debate, especially for my generation," said Luke Ball, Cawthorn's former communications director.
Ball, who joined Cawthorn's office as communications director in the summer of 2021, was moved by his inspiring recovery from a car accident that left him partially paralyzed at 18 years old.
But the good times quickly faded, as Cawthorn became somewhat of a pariah in the party amid a number of scandals that rocked his short tenure in office.
Cawthorn came under fire after he brought a loaded gun to an airport twice, drove with a revoked license and made shocking accusations about leaders in Washington.
“I look at all these people, a lot of them that I’ve looked up to in my life, then all of a sudden you get invited, ‘Hey we’re going to have a sexual get-together at our home,’ and I’m like ‘What did you ask me to come to?’ Then you realize they asked you to come to a orgy,” Cawthorn said during an interview with the Warrior Poet Society podcast in early March, comments that lost him key endorsements from other Republicans ahead of this year's primary.
"Some of the people that are leading to remove addiction in our country, then you watch them do a key bump of cocaine right in front of you,” Cawthorn said.
"It became stressful sometimes when the media was coming down hard on him," Ball said. "It wasn’t pleasant. It wasn’t what we wanted to focus on."
There was also the release of compromising leaked videos of Cawthorn in sexually suggestive poses. Cawthorn says they were from years ago and were meant to be funny; Ball says that an example of a young lawmaker who grew up with a cellphone.
In Cawthorn's defense, Ball argued that "half of the Congress wouldn’t be in there" if they too grew up with cell phones.
"I would argue that half of the Congress wouldn’t be in there if they grew up with cell phones in their hands," Ball said. "This was a really a little bit of a pioneering enterprise see someone this young growing up with technology see this kind of scandal."
Western Carolina University politics professor Chris Cooper says Cawthorn turned off voters when he announced he would switch districts before eventually coming back to run in the 11th Congressional District. He later lost in the Republican primary to state senator Chuck Edwards.
"I think ultimately what brought him down was a lack of political acumen and poor decision-making," Cooper said. "I mean, yes, it was the scandals, but again it was unforced errors."
Cooper believes Cawthorn's decision to focus on becoming a household name nationally hurt him at home.
"We’ve been playing a game of 'Where’s Waldo' in North Carolina’s 11th Congressional District for the last two years, but instead of Waldo in a striped shirt, it's Madison Cawthorn and the lack of his appearance in our district," Cooper told Spectrum News.
Cawthorn, who declined to speak with Spectrum News for this story, has mostly moved away from the spotlight since losing in May.
Though Ball no longer works for the outgoing congressional representative, he says Cawthorn's retreat is about a period of personal reflection. Ball pointed to Cawthorn’s work on veterans affairs and his focus on how the Republican party should govern as accomplishments.
The 27-year-old, who recently bought a house in Florida, could likely be back as a political commentator, or even a candidate.
"I think he will be remembered as an example of somebody who went too extreme," Cooper said. "Somebody who’s devolved into almost a caricature of a politician."
The House Ethics Committee recently found substantial evidence Cawthorn violated conflict of interest rules by promoting cryptocurrency. He was directed to repay more than $15,000 to an appropriate charitable organization.