House GOP Women's Caucus chair says chamber should censure Edwards after dropping reelection bid

House Republican Women's Caucus Chairwoman Kat Cammack, R-FL, said Wednesday the lower chamber should still censure fellow Rep. Chuck Edwards, R-NC, over sexual harassment allegations, despite dropping his reelection bid. 

Edwards made the decision after the House Ethics Committee found Monday that he violated the “spirit” of the chamber’s rules against sexual harassment by engaging in inappropriate conduct with young staffers. The panel recommended he face a formal censure as a result.

Cammack said when Edwards ran for Congress, “he promised to restore honor and integrity to the office" and that "based on the bipartisan House Ethics Committee’s findings, he failed to live up to that promise.”

“The Ethics Committee recommended censure, and the House should follow through," she continued in a statement. "A resignation announcement does not erase misconduct or absolve a Member of accountability. No one should be permitted to run out the clock and avoid the consequences of their actions."

The panel's report does not specifically accuse Edwards of sexual harassment but claimed he acted inappropriately with two young female staffers, who feared professional consequences if they rejected his advances.

The conduct included writing poems for a staffer and crying during a slideshow at her going away party; telling a staffer he left early from an event because she brought a date; and paying for a singer to go to a staffer’s birthday party to sing Ed Sheeran’s "The Hills of Aberfeldy" and saying it was “from a special someone.”

The committee noted that Edwards has denied that he sexually harassed any members of his staff because he did not make sexually explicit comments, physically touch any staff member inappropriately and told staff they could set their own boundaries. The panel did not recommend that he lose his committees or face other consequences.

The report comes as Cammack and House Democratic Women's Caucus Chair Teresa Leger Fernández, D-NM, work together to create a measure that would bar all romantic relationships between a lawmaker and a member of their staff.

“The Republican Women’s Caucus has spent months working with congressional employees, House administrators, and our colleagues in the Democratic Women’s Caucus to strengthen protections against sexual misconduct, safeguard staff, and restore accountability on Capitol Hill," Cammack said. 

"Every person who works on Capitol Hill deserves a safe, professional workplace, and every Member should be held to that standard," she added.

Misty Severi is a news reporter for Just The News. You can follow her on X for more coverage.