'Poetry Is Not Sexual Misconduct:' Rep. Chuck Edwards Makes Last-Minute Effort to Avoid Censure

Rep.

Chuck Edwards departs from a House Republican conference meeting in the U.S.

Capitol Building in Washington, D.C. on July 21, 2026. —Anna Moneymaker—Getty Images Republican Rep.

Chuck Edwards of North Carolina is appealing to his House colleagues not to censure him over his conduct toward two female staffers.

Edwards dropped his re-election bid on Aug.

5 following an Aug.

3 House Ethics Committee report that found the Republican lawmaker had “engaged in persistent unprofessional and inappropriate conduct” toward the two staffers.

The panel recommended Edwards’ censure, and a vote is expected next week.

Ahead of the vote, however, Edwards wrote a six-page letter addressed to other House members defending himself, saying that while he recognizes some of his colleagues may view his interactions differently, “context matters” in assessing them.

“An affectionate friendship is not a sexual proposition,” Edwards wrote in the letter, dated Aug.

25 and first obtained by NOTUS and reported on Thursday.

“A gift is not sexual misconduct.

A compliment is not sexual misconduct.

Poetry is not sexual misconduct.