Rep. Chuck Edwards (R-N.C.) announced on Aug. 5 that he will not run for reelection following a House Ethics Committee report that found the lawmaker had acted inappropriately.
“After much prayer and reflection, I’ve decided to withdraw from my re-election campaign. I will complete my current term,” Edwards posted on X.
The House Ethics Committee released the report on Aug. 3 calling for Edwards to be censured by the House over his alleged conduct toward two female staffers in his office.
Edwards was facing farmer and entrepreneur Jamie Ager in the November election.
Edwards was first elected to Congress in 2022, representing North Carolina’s 11th Congressional District. The Cook Political Report rates the district as “lean Republican.”
With Edwards out of the race, the GOP executive committee for North Carolina’s 11th Congressional District will meet and pick a new nominee in accordance with North Carolina law. The committee consists of GOP officials from the district’s 16 counties. State laws do not dictate who would be on the executive committee.
State law allows political parties to replace congressional nominees at any time. If the new nomination takes place after ballots are printed, the original nominee stays on the ballot and votes cast for him/her go to the new nominee.
The Ethics Committee report accused Edwards of having “engaged in persistent unprofessional and inappropriate conduct towards two young female staffers.”
Although Edwards “denied that any of his conduct was intended as a sexual or romantic advance, his pattern of behavior would lead a reasonable observer to interpret it as such, including providing the young women with lavish and recurrent gifts, making comments regarding their appearance and dress, inviting them to intimate dinners and vacations, sending notes regarding his effusive affection, and inviting them to other activities as a way to spend time together,” according to the report.
The committee did not find that Edwards engaged in sexual activity with the staffers.
Edwards “was aware, however, that his excessive attention toward the young women had led to rumors and innuendo in the office,” the report said. “Both women were uncomfortable with his behavior (which they attempted to communicate) but were put in an untenable position by virtue of his status as their boss and a member of Congress. Rep. Edwards was at minimum blind to that reality, and at worst, dismissive of the impact his inappropriate conduct had on the careers and wellbeing of two women on his staff.”
The Epoch Times has reached out to Edwards’s office for a response to the report.
