Rep. Chuck Edwards, R-N.C., announced Wednesday that he’s suspending his reelection campaign, two days after a House Ethics Committee report concluded that he had acted inappropriately towards two female members of his congressional staff.
“After much prayer and reflection, I’ve decided to withdraw from my re-election campaign,” Edwards said in a post on X. He thanked voters from his district in western North Carolina for their “trust, prayers, and support,” and said he would finish his term.
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Edwards, first elected in 2022, was facing tough competition for a third term from Jamie Ager, a North Carolina farmer who has backing from the moderate Blue Dog Democrats, NOTUS reported.
What were the allegations?
In May, Axios published an article about Edwards’ alleged inappropriate behavior towards female staffers, based on interviews with three anonymous sources who said they saw the behavior.
The outlet reported that Edwards had given the women gifts and notes and had taken them on trips or to events, including the White House Christmas party in 2024. The gifts included personalized firearms, one of which was a blue handgun engraved with the staff member’s name.
The sources told Axios that the staffers involved were uncomfortable with the special treatment Edwards had shown them, which created internal division in his office. One of the women was promoted to a senior-level position despite having been on the job for less than two years, and a more experienced staffer left shortly after the promotion.
In response to the article, the House Ethics Committee launched its investigation. On Monday, the committee released its findings, concluding that Edwards had acted inappropriately. But the committee noted that it found no evidence that Edwards had engaged in any sexual activity or “explicitly propositioned any individual under his employ.”
The report described Edwards’ conduct towards the women as “increasingly unusual attention” and said it left both of them and their coworkers uncomfortable.
The committee recommended that Edwards be censured, a formal rebuke of a lawmaker and the harshest potential penalty short of expulsion from Congress. The House could still vote to censure him, but no action could occur for a few weeks at the earliest since the House is in recess.
Internal pressure from colleagues
Edwards’ lawyers released a 15-page rebuttal to the committee’s report, saying the panel “failed to demonstrate that either of the two staffers expressed discomfort to Representative Edwards regarding his conduct with them.” They also said lawmakers had been censured “only at matters of severe sexual misconduct.”
Paul Shumaker, a spokesperson and strategist for the congressman’s reelection campaign, wrote in a letter that the Ethics Committee’s staff wrote rules that were inconsistent with the law or the rules of the House, The Associated Press reported.
“Representative Edwards looks forward to having his name cleared and will work to ensure that the full light of day is brought on this process and that every member of Congress and the public can see the attempt to harm the Congressman who has brought no harm to others,” he wrote.
However, pressure had been building among Edwards’ Republican colleagues for him to drop his reelection campaign. CNN reported that Republican House leaders were speaking to Edwards to convince him to abandon his reelection efforts following the report’s release.
GOP leaders worried the damage of the report and Edwards’ possible censure would allow his district, which Republicans have won since 2012, to flip to Democrats in this year’s election.
Edwards faced stiff competition
Edwards was facing a hard reelection campaign, with Ager outraising him by about $1.3 million in the latest fundraising quarter, Axios reported.
Since 2016, Republicans have been slowly losing their grasp on the district. In that year, the Republican candidate, former Rep. Mark Meadows, won with more than 64% of the vote. But by 2024, when Edwards won a second term, he secured just under 57% of the vote.
Edwards’ district is one of two competitive districts in North Carolina, a state crucial to both parties as Republicans try to maintain their control over the House and Democrats try to retake it.
A recent analysis by the Cook Political Report moved Edwards’ race from “likely Republican” to “lean Republican.” Before the Ethics Committee released its report, Sabato’s Crystal Ball had moved Edwards’ campaign from “leans Republican” to “toss up.”
North Carolina and Republican Party leaders are now shifting to finding a replacement for Edwards. Republican officials from the 16 counties that make up Edwards’ district will soon meet to choose a new nominee. That candidate has to be chosen at least 75 days before the November election to appear on the ballot.
Edwards easily beat his primary opponent, Adam Smith, by more than 40 percentage points.