WASHINGTON (AP) — Embattled North Carolina Republican congressman Chuck Edwards withdrew from his reelection campaign on Wednesday, two days after the House Ethics Committee recommended he be censured for unprofessional and inappropriate conduct toward two young female aides in his office. The Ethics Committee recommended the censure, an act registering its deep disapproval of a lawmaker’s conduct that does not meet the threshold for expulsion, on Monday. “Serving Western North Carolina has been the honor of my life,” he said in a post on X. In a response to the Ethics Committee’s report, Edwards’ attorneys argued that the committee’s findings “exonerate” the congressman. His attorneys said the recommendation of censure was an “extraordinarily harsh and infrequent punishment” based on vague standards and adherence to the spirit of House rules, “not based on a direct violation of House rules addressing sexual misconduct.”