North Carolina Republican congressional candidate Madison Cawthorn, 25, urged viewers to reach for their U.S. history books in his speech Wednesday night while delivering a blatantly false history lesson about this “favorite” founding father, James Madison. “If you don’t think young people can change the world, then you just don’t know American history,” Cawthorn said. “George Washington was 21 when he received his first military commission.
Abe Lincoln — 22 when he first ran for office. And my personal favorite, James Madison was just 25 years old when he signed the Declaration of Independence.” James Madison, considered one of the country’s Founding Fathers, did not sign the Declaration of Independence.