How a young House candidate beat his Trump-endorsed rival

A 24-year-old in a wheelchair gave walking papers to a rival endorsed by President Trump on a Tuesday in a Republican primary runoff in North Carolina. He also showed that nasty negative advertising can be defeated by a largely positive message.

Madison Cawthorn, who won’t turn 25 until Aug. 1, is a motivational speaker and real estate investor whose career at the U.S. Naval Academy was cut short when he was partially paralyzed in an automobile accident (in which he was a passenger). In a race for the U.S. House of Representatives in the Tarheel State’s 11th Congressional District, Cawthorn first survived a multi-candidate primary featuring several political veterans, and then in the runoff defeated Lynda Bennett, whom Trump had endorsed.