House censures Chuck Edwards over "sexual harassment" of staff

Rep. Chuck Edwards (R-N.C.) was censured by the House on Tuesday after the Ethics Committee found he failed "to adhere to the spirit of rules prohibiting sexual harassment of and unwanted advances to House staffers."

Why it matters: The vote amounts to a remarkable bipartisan rebuke, with the GOP leadership team and the vast majority of Edwards' own party joining Democrats to impose one of the House's most serious punishments.

• The Ethics Committee's findings follow Axios' reporting that Edwards singled out two young female staffers in their 20s for special attention that multiple sources described as inappropriate.

• Every Democrat and all but two Republicans voted to censure Edwards, who abandoned his reelection campaign last month.
• The last time the Ethics Committee recommended censure for a member was in 2010.

Driving the news: Edwards mounted a last-ditch campaign to save himself from censure, circulating a 22-page letter last week to lawmakers arguing that the committee made an "extraordinary leap" in determining that his conduct constituted sexual harassment.

• On the floor ahead of the censure vote, he issued an apology: "I want to say something directly and publicly to the two women who have been at the center of all of this: I am sorry. 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."
• Though he added, "Regret is not an admission of sexual harassment."
• Edwards also apologized to his wife and family: "I'm deeply sorry that my judgment and my actions put you in a position where you had to endure embarrassment, hurt, public scrutiny, and questions that no wife should ever have to face."

What they're saying: "The ethics committee was clear in their conclusion, and they investigated this. They took it seriously, as they should, and now it's time for Congress to take action," Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) told Axios on Tuesday morning.

• "The committee reviewed Representative Edwards' conduct and determined that he engaged in persistent, unprofessional, and inappropriate conduct with two young female staffers," Ethics Chairman Michael Guest (R-Miss.) said on the House floor Tuesday.
• "While Representative Edwards denies that his conduct was intended to be sexual or romantic, his pattern of behavior would lead a reasonable person to interpret it as such."

Catch up quick: The Ethics report's findings corroborated several anecdotes previously reported by Axios, including handwritten correspondence, personal gifts, drinking outings, and casino trips, and cited them as supporting evidence for its findings.

• Edwards wrote one staffer a flattering poem that he read aloud — while choking up and becoming teary-eyed — at her office-wide going-away party, Axios previously reported, and the Ethics Committee found.
• "Several staffers present testified that they felt uncomfortable, and Representative Edwards acknowledged in his own testimony that he could tell the staff felt uncomfortable," the report stated.

He also told that staffer that she had "written a complex chapter in my heart" shortly before she was set to leave his office in a three-page handwritten letter previously reported by Axios.

• Edwards gave the staffer a custom puzzle revealing an image of Adam Sandler with a handwritten note inviting her to attend one of Sandler's comedy shows with him, Axios previously reported.
• Ethics wrote that Edwards mailed the puzzle with a handwritten invitation to "dinner beforehand, or a drink or dessert afterwards."

During the fall 2025 government shutdown, Edwards vacationed with the then-former staffer in Las Vegas, where he arranged for flowers to be waiting in her Bellagio hotel room, Axios previously reported.

• The female staffer told Edwards the flowers made her uncomfortable, according to Axios' previous reporting and testimony to the Ethics Committee.
• The staffer told the committee that "she ultimately felt pressured to go in part because of his persistence and in part because Representative Edwards continued to have influence over her career in another public service role."
• Edwards testified that "he did not want his Scheduler to be aware of who he was with," while he was in Vegas "as '[i]t would have looked suspicious' because 'rumors swirled around' and 'it's not any of [his staff's] business.'"

Both staffers "received numerous gifts from Representative Edwards, including jewelry totaling over $1,000, designer purses, guns, shoes, flowers, a laptop and cell phone, KitchenAid mixer, a robotic vacuum, vacations, tickets to performances, and one-on-one dinners," the Ethics Committee wrote in its report.

• Ethics ultimately found the women were "put in an untenable position by virtue of his status as their boss and a Member of Congress."

In the spring of 2025, Edwards hired a singer to perform the staffer's favorite Ed Sheeran songs during the staffer's birthday party at Salazar in Washington, D.C, Axios previously reported.

• The panel wrote that Edwards arranged for a singer to perform "Ed Sheeran's Hills of Aberfeldy and say that it was 'from a special someone."
• The panel said it received evidence that the staffer told a friend that this "led her to believe that the Congressman did not view her as 'just a daughter figure' and that she was 'scared lowkey.'"

Edwards also sent one of the staffers "approximately 30 different types of ice cream" to her house to "cheer her up," according to the panel's report.

• Edwards "voluntarily produced some of his communications" with the staffers to the committee, but the panel said "many relevant messages were omitted and/or seemingly deleted from his phone," including a photo of the 30 ice cream pints.

The bottom line: Ethics wrote in its report that Edwards has "refused to acknowledge the reality of the power imbalance between a Member of Congress and young staffers, even as his former staffers have been put through this difficult and emotional process with serious repercussions on their personal and professional lives."