Cawthorn, Rejected by Naval Academy, Disbands Service Academy Advisory Panel

In another step toward Rep. Madison Cawthorn’s withdrawal from public life well before the end of his first and perhaps only term in office, the Republican lawmaker has disbanded the 11th Congressional District’s federal service academy selection board, leaving western North Carolina applicants uncertain of their prospects.

The panel of experts recommended candidates for acceptance into West Point, the U.S. Naval Academy, and the nation’s other service academies. The disbanding of the panel, created to guard against members of Congress using their nominating power to reward political allies, is the latest example of Cawthorn severing ties with his home district since he lost his primary election May 17 to fellow Hendersonville Republican Chuck Edwards. 

Cawthorn has closed his office on Capitol Hill, shuttered his congressional offices in western North Carolina, laid off staff, bought a $1.12 million house and boat in Florida, and largely disappeared from both his home district and the halls of Congress — even though his term and his Congressional salary of $174,000 continue until Jan. 3, 2023.  

He has filed to vote by proxy — giving his vote to other far-right allies including Marjorie Taylor Greene, Lauren Boebert, and Matt Gaetz — more than a dozen times since May, most recently last week, when he wrote to the clerk of the House that he was “unable to physically attend proceedings in the House Chamber due to the ongoing public health emergency.” At the time, Cawthorn’s social media postings show, he was at former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort attending Trump’s 2024 presidential candidacy announcement — apparently the only sitting member of Congress to attend. 

Rejected by Naval Academy

The federal service academy selection board’s members were told Nov. 15 that, in place of the apolitical process established in 2015, Cawthorn himself will choose the young women and men from western North Carolina he will recommend for admission to the elite, taxpayer-supported schools. 

Cawthorn, who was home-schooled, sought and received a nomination to the Naval Academy from then-Congressman Mark Meadows, a family friend. Despite the nomination from Meadows the Naval Academy rejected Cawthorn’s application. A few months later Cawthorn was severely injured in an automobile crash, which left him a paraplegic.  

In his 2020 campaign for the Republican nomination to succeed Meadows, Cawthorn falsely and repeatedly implied that he had been on track to attend the Naval Academy until the auto crash prevented him from pursuing a military career. As reported by Asheville Watchdog, Cawthorn admitted under questioning in a lawsuit stemming from the crash that the Naval Academy had rejected him prior to the accident.

Board Created to Limit Political Influence

Meadows created the current review board in 2015 and named retired Air Force Major Gen. Rick Devereaux as its head. Devereaux was joined by five other retired or former military officers, each with direct ties to one of the academies.  

In an interview with Asheville Watchdog, Devereaux explained that the board used a rigorous process to evaluate potential nominees based on criteria including high school class ranking, test scores, writing and math abilities, physical fitness, and leadership potential. The board then forwarded a list of the top applicants to Meadows for his nomination, with assurance from Meadows that the list would be passed to the academies for their final review without further intervention. 

Some members of Congress prioritize their nominees before forwarding individual names to the academies, but Meadows didn’t do so, Devereaux said, enabling the academies to make the final selections without politicization.  

“You can’t afford to politicize the service academy process,” Devereaux, an Air Force Academy graduate, said. “And this committee was set up to avoid the perception of politicizing.” 

The academies typically offer admission to one of every 10 nominees on a lawmaker’s list, making them among the nation’s most highly selective colleges and universities.

WNC Candidates Successful in 2021

Meadows resigned his seat in 2019 to become Trump’s chief of staff. When Cawthorn won election to succeed him, he continued the process and maintained the same board. 

Devereaux said the 2021 process was highly successful as applicants from western North Carolina won appointments to all the academies. 

But after a scandal-plagued term in office, a foiled attempt to run for re-election in a district closer to Charlotte, and a loss to Edwards in the GOP primary this year, Cawthorn’s interest in continuing the nonpartisan selection process apparently has died, Devereaux said. 

High school students seeking admission to any of the academies are advised to begin the process by August, which includes demonstrations of their communication skills, their standardized test results, medical records, and recommendation letters from teachers (typically one attesting to writing skills and another to math skills). They also must be able to pass a health and fitness test.  

Devereaux said several students have contacted him and other board members in recent months seeking assurance that their applications for Cawthorn’s nomination are on track, assurances Devereaux said he is unable to give. He said the board’s practice has been to complete its evaluation of each applicant by the end of October, although the academies don’t require submissions until mid-January. 

“Everything Is In Disarray”

Repeated efforts to get permission from Cawthorn’s district staff director, Brianna McMinn, to schedule face-to-face interviews with the top applicants before the board’s Oct. 31 deadline failed, Devereaux said. 

He said he was able to reach McMinn on Nov. 15 by calling her personal cell phone. She explained, he said, that she and the rest of the staff had closed the Hendersonville office, the only one remaining in the district, and that she no longer had access to office phones or the congressional computer network. 

“She told me that nothing could happen after Nov. 11 [because] jobs are changing; everything is in disarray,” Devereaux said.

Callers trying to reach the congressman’s offices hear a recorded message saying Cawthorn is “proudly representing North Carolina’s 11th Congressional District.” The machine then asks the caller to leave a message and await a return call. Messages left by Asheville Watchdog earlier this month have not yet been acknowledged.

When Devereaux asked McMinn how the current applications will be screened, he said she replied: “ ‘The decision has been made that the staff will handle it this year and it is out of my hands. I can’t talk about it.’ “

The Watchdog attempted to contact McMinn and Cawthorn on their mobile phones and left text messages seeking comment. None has been forthcoming. 

With Cawthorn’s regional and Capitol offices closed, and constituent services halted, Devereaux said he speculates that Cawthorn will personally nominate candidates without seeking an expert, independent review. This, he said, opens the way for Cawthorn to nominate the sons and daughters of political supporters in an “opaque” manner — a legal, though disfavored, practice.

Ethics Committee Investigations

Although Cawthorn appears to be done with Congress, Congress is not yet done with him. His campaign remains deeply in debt to vendors and donors. The House Committee on Ethics is investigating whether Cawthorn may have improperly promoted a cryptocurrency in which he may have had an undisclosed financial interest, and whether he engaged in an improper relationship with an individual employed on his congressional staff. 

What will become of the current group of service academy applicants is the question on Devereaux’s mind, he said. Even when the review board was in place, he said, an occasional and misinformed applicant would try to win favor by touting political or ideological ties to the congressman or to the Republican Party.

“One young woman told us that she had been raised by her parents to believe that all Democrats were liberals and socialists, and therefore anti-American,” Devereaux said. “She said that she wanted to go into the military so she could protect the country against these Democrats.” 

She didn’t make the list, Devereaux said. 

[Disclosures: Rick Devereaux is a major financial supporter of Asheville Watchdog. It is our policy to inform readers when someone mentioned in a story is a donor. Watchdog reporter Tom Fiedler is a graduate of the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy and a Vietnam veteran.]

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Asheville Watchdog is a nonprofit news team producing stories that matter to Asheville and Buncombe County. Tom Fiedler is a Pulitzer Prize-winning political reporter and former executive editor of The Miami Herald. Email tfiedler@avlwatchdog.org.