Tuesday 17 May 2022 12:34 PM Will voters give Madison Cawthorn a second chance? North Carolina heads to the ... trends now

Voters in North Carolina's 11th Congressional District will decide on Tuesday whether to send Rep. Madison Cawthorn back to Capitol Hill - despite the laundry list of scandals he's grappled with in recent months.

He's repeatedly dismissed the seemingly endless list of public relations headaches as 'blackmail' that's part of a 'drip campaign' to take him out of office. 

The 26-year-old Republican's first re-election bid is perhaps the most-watched primary race in the Tar Heel state on May 17. 

He's up against seven other GOP candidates looking to take his spot - as well as more outside dollars spent trying to unseat him than in any other primary race in North Carolina this cycle.

Cawthorn is also battling opposition within his own party, led by North Carolina Senator Thom Tillis. 

'I think the critical test in the North Carolina 11th Congressional Republican nomination is whether Republican voters have tired of Rep. Cawthorn’s antics and approach to public service, or whether the Trump support, reinforced today with the former president’s statement of “give Cawthorn a second chance,” will overcome that weariness,' Catawba College politics professor Dr. Michael Bitzer told DailyMail.com.

Meanwhile Tillis told CNN earlier this month that he would be 'disappointed for his constituents' if Cawthorn won Tuesday's primary. A PAC linked to the senator spent $300,000 late last month on attack ads targeting the young congressman.

He and other members of the North Carolina GOP as well as national Republican figures have knocked Cawthorn's conduct over a series of public relations incidents - which also appear to have dragged him down in the polls.

One politics expert told DailyMail.com the scandals were 'eroding his support quite a bit.' 

Since becoming the youngest person currently serving in Congress, Cawthorn has twice been cited by police for bringing a firearm to the airport and has been stopped by North Carolina highway patrol at least three times.

During one stop on March 3, Cawthorn was informed that he was driving with an invalid license and was forced to switch seats with an unknown female passenger.

He's also been accused of insider trading over a Washington Examiner report suggesting Cawthorn could have had a role in a pump-and-dump cryptocurrency scheme.

Moreover, Cawthorn has also been the subject of embarrassing leaked images including photos of himself in women's lingerie, a video of him naked and simulating a sex act and a clip obtained by DailyMail.com that shows Cawthorn's male staffer putting his hand on the lawmaker's crotch.

Cawthorn also was condemned by bipartisan lawmakers for calling Ukrainian President Zelensky 'corrupt' and a 'thug' less than two weeks after Russia launched a brutal and unprovoked invasion of his country. 

The Republican is going into Tuesday's race having lost 11 points in a public opinion survey between March and April, going from 49 percent support to just 38 percent, according to Republican group GOPAC.

At the same time, Cawthorn's most significant challenger saw a boost in his backing. State Senator Chuck Edwards, who is endorsed by Tillis, saw share of support jumped from 14 percent to 21 percent in the same time frame.