If you knew the sociopolitical climate there, you would understand why he was elected.
Quick story. When my friend bought his place up in the mountains outside of Asheville, we held a birthday party for him that was of decent size. A few locals who had become acquaintances were invited and they 'showed their ass'. So, they were asked to not come back. The next year we had the birthday party, those idiots decided to go to the police and 'turn us in' for a variety of complaints. (Nowadays, this is called 'swatting'.) The Saturday of the party, the powers that be up there sent both county deputies, both cops from the closest town, and the local NCHP officer to set up a roadblock on the road to my friend's house. They issued five tickets and made nine arrests for DUI and drug possession that day. ALL LOCALS. Not one person attending the party was arrested or even ticketed. After hearing about the manpower that had been congregating on that rural road all day, I told my friend that it was a crying shame that we did not know this was going to happen in advance. We could have gotten a group together with a big truck and cleaned out that nearby town. They had no police there to do anything. Suffice to say, a few years later, one of our friends was elected to the county commissioners and she was able to see a report on that day. It basically said that they did all that work and wasted all that manpower because one of those locals that had been there that first party was the cousin of one of the deputies for the county and 'turned us in'. That same person has been arrested multiple times for meth and other drugs as well as assault and several DUIs. But, they took her word because we were 'new'.
This is how rabidly conservative that area is. The 'good ole boy' network is in full force there. Cawthorn is from the privileged ranks of that area. They think they can do whatever they want because Gawd says they are the chosen and tradition says they are the ones with the power. Laws apply to the peons, not to the elite. That such a person was elected by that area is not a surprise. That the rest of the House has not removed him from office (and that North Carolina has not recalled and removed him as well) is, and that is a source of much concern for a native Tarheel like myself. We used to be more... sensible.
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