GOP group calls on congressmen to resign via billboard campaign

WASHINGTON — New billboards paid for by a Republican group have gone up in North Carolina calling on two Republicans to resign from the U.S. House in the aftermath of the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.

The Republican Accountability Project, created by anti-Donald Trump Republicans, purchased the billboards in opposition to U.S. Reps. Madison Cawthorn and Dan Bishop. It is part of a $1 million national campaign against a dozen or so congressional Republicans, including Sens. Ted Cruz and Josh Hawley, according to the group.

“You lied about the election. The Capitol was attacked. Cawthorn: Resign,” the billboards read in Cawthorn’s district.

There are three billboards in Cawthorn’s district, in ZIP codes around Asheville. There are also three billboards in Bishop’s district, including two on US 74 near Interstate 485 and another in Monroe. The ads in Bishop’s district will remain up until Feb. 25. They are part of the nearly 100 billboard ads purchased by the group.

Both Cawthorn and Bishop voted against certification of President Joe Biden’s election victories in Arizona and Pennsylvania.

“These representatives and senators helped incite the insurrection against the Capitol by spreading lies about the election,” said Sarah Longwell, executive director of Republican Accountability Project, in a statement. “They have proved that they are unfit to hold office. They should be nowhere near power.”

The Republican Accountability Project is an affiliate of Defending Democracy Together, a group that spent more than $15 million in the 2020 presidential campaign, almost all of it against Trump. It does not have to disclose its donors.

“Rep. Cawthorn is disappointed to hear that local Democrats are once again funneling dark money, from outside sources, into NC-11. Rep. Cawthorn will continue to work hard for the people of his district, and will continue to fulfill his promises of only representing their interests,” said Cawthorn spokesman Micah Bock in an email.

Cawthorn, who represents far-western North Carolina’s 11th Congressional District, spoke at the Trump rally before a mob breached the Capitol in a deadly attack on Jan. 6, the day of election certification.

“I’m fighting a battle for our Constitution on the house floor with other patriots. The battle is on the house floor, not in the streets of D.C.,” Cawthorn tweeted at 1:31 p.m. on Jan. 6 — around the same time a mob was breaking into the Capitol.

Bishop, who is from Charlotte and represents the 9th Congressional District, released an eight-page report before the vote that accused the “national Democratic Party” of carrying “out a coordinated nationwide campaign to undermine the rule of law governing the election as structured in the Constitution.”