The representative responded to embarrassing vacation photos leaked to Politico by someone “formerly close to his campaign”.

Cawthorn, 26, has found himself involved in a series of controversies over the past few weeks.

The latest involves a set of photographs of the congressman wearing what appears to be lingerie and women’s accessories in a party setting.


Politico allegedly obtained the photographs, which are screenshots of original images, from someone formerly close to the congressman. A second person reportedly confirmed the origin of the photos.

Shortly after the story was published, Cawthorn tweeted that the photos were taken during a notoriously raunchy adults-only game aboard a cruise ship well before he was elected to Congress.

The game, called Quest, is a regular feature on board Royal Caribbean cruises.

It involves passengers forming teams to participate in a sort of scavenger hunt. According to an unrelated review of the game, the cruise director asks for an outrageous item or scenario and teams race to be the first to fulfill the request.

It started off innocently enough, with requests for items like “a tie” or “a sock with a hole in it” (yes, every sock has at least ONE hole in it). But it quickly got a little more bawdy: a man wearing lipstick or someone with their pants on backward. By the end, it was barely controlled chaos, with one male member of our group wearing a bra and poorly applied makeup declaring his name was Savannah Sunshine.

How the photos will effect Cawthorn’s re-election bid is to be determined. He faces seven Republican opponents.

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