U.S. Rep. Madison Cawthorn faced seven challengers in North Carolina's Republican primary, an early test of whether voters will grant the pro-Donald Trump firebrand another term despite his personal and political stumbles.
Polls closed at 7:30 p.m. ET. Several GOP leaders have turned away from the 26-year-old congressman, with some citing a series of unforced errors. He called Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy a "thug."
Cawthorn also infuriated fellow Republicans in Congress when he alleged on a podcast that he had been invited to an orgy in Washington, D.C. State Sen. Chuck Edwards, Cawthorn's top rival, received endorsements from U.S. Sen. Thom Tillis and the state's top GOP legislative leaders.
In an election-eve post on his social media site Truth Social, Trump asked primary voters to back him again: “Recently, he made some foolish mistakes, which I don’t believe he’ll make again ... let’s give Madison a second chance!”