When a congressman is hitting on his staffers, it's worse when he's married

When a congressman is hitting on his staffers, it’s worse when he’s married

Published August 5, 2026 11:29am ET Updated August 5, 2026 11:29am ET

Rep. Chuck Edwards (R-NC) is dropping his reelection bid amid a House Ethics Committee investigation into his behavior that includes hitting on his young female staffers, asking them out on dates, and excessively expressing his too-warm feelings for them.

Read the NPR coverage of Edwards’s behavior, and you’ll get many of the cringey details, absent a really important one: Edwards is married and has been for more than 45 years.