House Censures North Carolina Rep. Chuck Edwards Over Conduct Toward Two Aides

WASHINGTON —

The House voted 413 to 2 on Tuesday to censure Rep. Chuck Edwards, a North Carolina Republican, after a bipartisan ethics investigation found he engaged in "persistent unprofessional and inappropriate conduct" toward two young women who worked for him, CBS News and NBC News reported. Only Edwards and Rep. Ralph Norman, a Republican from South Carolina, voted no.

Censure is a formal rebuke that does not remove a lawmaker from office. After the vote, Edwards stood in the well of the House chamber while Speaker Mike Johnson, a Louisiana Republican, read the resolution against him aloud, according to NBC News.

Ethics Panel Cited Gifts, Trips and Late-Night Messages

The House Ethics Committee released a 25-page report last month describing Edwards' behavior toward two women who had worked for him in his North Carolina state Senate office before joining his congressional staff, according to CBS News. The committee found no evidence that Edwards had sexual contact with either woman or explicitly propositioned them, but concluded his conduct still violated House rules against sexual harassment and toxic workplaces.

According to the report, Edwards gave the women jewelry, designer purses, handguns, flowers and other high-value gifts, commented on their appearance, and invited them on vacations and one-on-one dinners. He arranged a helicopter ride, dinner and a Broadway show for one woman during a work trip to New York, and sent roughly 30 types of ice cream to the other woman's home, NBC News reported. He also skipped House votes to help decorate one woman's Christmas tree and wrote her poems, including one he read, in tears, at her office going-away party, according to NBC News.

The committee said Edwards "knew or had reason to know" by May 2025 that his conduct made the women uncomfortable, after a senior staffer raised it with him, according to CBS News. "A reasonable person could interpret Representative Edwards' intimate and effusive attentions ... as thinly veiled advances," the report said, according to CBS News.

Edwards Apologized but Rejected the Panel's Conclusion

Edwards, 65, ended his reelection campaign after the committee recommended censure, and North Carolina Republican leaders later chose state Rep. Jennifer Balkcom to run for his seat in November, NBC News reported.

On the House floor before the vote, Edwards apologized to his wife and to the two women. "I'm sorry that my actions, my judgment or the way that I expressed a friendship ever put either of you in an uncomfortable position," he said, according to both outlets. But he insisted, "Regret is not an admission of sexual harassment."

In a letter sent to colleagues before the vote, Edwards argued the committee's findings did not amount to sexual misconduct. "A gift is not sexual misconduct. A compliment is not sexual misconduct. Poetry is not sexual misconduct," he wrote, according to both outlets. After the vote, Edwards wrote on social media, "I respect the House vote. I do not accept the conclusion that it produced."