The Republican Party needs to focus on electing people who are best qualified for the job, rather than people who former President Donald Trump endorses.

One representative from North Carolina exemplifies why Republican voters as well as politicians need to stay on what each candidate will do for the country and their state.

Rep. Madison Cawthorn is the representative for the 11th district in North Carolina, who was elected in 2020. He has since then proved he is not even remotely the best choice, mainly because he lied about his life story.

He was endorsed by Trump in the past and in October 2021 for his reelection, and has been with Trump at his rallies the past few months. Cawthorn has shown his support for the former president, and Trump has reciprocated such support.

On his biography page on the House of Representatives website, he claims the left is running a smear campaign against him. However, he has purposely misled voters into thinking he was more of a “hero” than he actually was when he was running for Congress.

In 2017, he stated that he was left to die in the car accident that left him wheelchair bound. Yet his friend who was in the car with him and who helped him get to safety, later publicly disputed the claim in 2021.

He also said that the Naval Academy rejected him because of the car crash, even though it was later proven that they rejected him before the crash. Time and time again, he has proven to mislead voters and people into believing that he is the hero he thinks he is.

He has done many other things before his time in congress, but as a representative, he has put the nail in the coffin for why he should not run again as well as possibly being removed.

In 2020 and 2021 he has continually supported the false narrative that there was election fraud, even stating on his biography page, “He helped lead the charge to protect election integrity and objected to the House’s certification of the presidential election results.”

The evidence to remove him or at the minimum block him from reelection is his clear support of the Jan. 6 attack on the capitol. He is one of five candidates whose reelection bids are in question, as they would be committing treason.

While Cawthorn is one of a few “bad eggs” that are tied to Trump, it does help to question how valid Trump’s endorsement ability on candidates for congress is or even state positions.

Iowa’s own Gov. Kim Reynolds has been someone who has worked closely with Trump in the past, supporting election fraud claims in 2020. On March 10, she announced her bid for reelection, and though Trump has only good words to say about Reynolds, he has yet to give her an endorsement.

Reynolds may not be the candidate that is the best for Iowa, but she could do better by simply cutting her ties with Trump and rejecting any endorsement.

Republicans need to do the same, since Trump is no longer in office, and this would allow the country to move forward away from Jan. 6.

Democrats and Republicans need to rely on having good and likable policies to garner votes rather than relying on a past president’s approval, which more often than not comes with its own set of problems, hurting the voters who voted them in.

Columns reflect the opinions of the authors and are not necessarily those of the Editorial Board, The Daily Iowan, or other organizations in which the author may be involved.