U.S. House of Representatives
Elections 2012 On May 19, 2012, the Republican County Chairmen for the 14 Illinois counties the 13th district comprises nominated Davis as the Republican candidate for Congress. This district had previously been the 15th, represented by six-term incumbent Republican
Tim Johnson. Johnson had announced in April that he would not seek reelection, just days after winning the Republican primary. Other finalists for the nomination were Jerry Clarke, chief of staff to fellow U.S. Representative
Randy Hultgren and Johnson's former chief of staff;
Erika Harold, a lawyer and winner of
Miss America in 2003; and Kathy Wassink, a businesswoman. His home in Taylorville had previously been in Shimkus's 19th District (which had been renumbered as the 15th). But the new 13th had absorbed much of the old 19th's northern portion, including Taylorville. In the general election, Davis defeated Democratic nominee
David M. Gill by 1,002 votes (0.3%). Independent candidate John Hartman received around 21,000 votes (7.2%).
2014 On June 13, 2013, former
Miss America Erika Harold announced she would run against Davis in the March 18 Republican primary. The Republican field included Davis, Harold, and
Michael Firsching. Davis won the primary with 55% of the vote. He was reportedly a top target for the
Democrats but won with 59% of the vote.
2016 Davis was reelected in 2016, defeating Ethan Vandersand in the primary and Democratic nominee
Mark Wicklund and independent David Gill in the general election. He received 59.7% of the vote.
2018 On March 20, 2018, Betsy Londrigan won the Democratic primary in District 13 with over 45% of the vote, beating Erik Jones, David Gill, Jonathan Ebel, and Angel Sides. In May 2018, the
American Federation of Government Employees endorsed Davis for reelection. AFGE District 7 National Vice President Dorothy James said, "We hope that Representative Davis will continue his good work on Capitol Hill for years to come and are happy to announce our support for him today." On November 6, Davis was reelected, 50.4% to 49.6%. He lost the district's shares of
Champaign,
McLean, and
Sangamon Counties, but carried
Christian and
Macon Counties. His margins in both far exceeded his overall margin of 2,058 votes. During a debate, Davis said that
The Washington Post fact-checker had found Londrigan's claims about the impact of Obamacare's repeal on preexisting conditions to be false.
The Washington Post fact-checker responded, "Republicans are twisting an unrelated fact check and are misleading voters."
2020 Davis ran for a fifth term and was unopposed in the Republican primary. Londrigan ran again, and easily won the Democratic primary. Although most forecasters considered the race a tossup due to the close margin in 2018, Davis won reelection by 9 points. His larger margin of victory was attributed to both an increase in turnout from the district's Republican-leaning rural counties, and a decrease in the district's college campuses. Londrigan attempted to tie Davis to President Trump, and he linked her to Illinois House Speaker and state Democratic Party chair
Mike Madigan, who was broadly unpopular. Trump's
2020 presidential campaign named Davis one of four "honorary state chairs."
2022 After the
2020 United States census, new congressional maps were drawn, eliminating Republican-leaning districts. Davis' old district was made significantly more Democratic by adding most of the core of
Metro-East, the Illinois side of the St. Louis area. At the same time, his home in Taylorville was drawn back into the 15th district, represented by Shimkus' successor,
Mary Miller. Although Davis' home was drawn into the district while Miller's home was drawn just outside of it, Miller handily defeated Davis in the Republican primary.
Tenure On June 14, 2017, Davis was one of several Republicans who were practicing for the Congressional Baseball Game for Charity at a baseball field in Alexandria, Virginia, when
a gunman opened fire, wounding Representative
Steve Scalise and several others. Since the shooting, Davis has made it his mission to promote more civility in politics. Since 2019, the Lugar Center and Georgetown University McCourt School of Public Policy's Bipartisan Index has rated Davis the most bipartisan member of Congress from Illinois. For the First Session (2021) of the 117th Congress, he was rated the 22nd most bipartisan member of Congress nationwide. In the 116th Congress (2019–2020), he was rated the 14th most bipartisan member of Congress nationwide. Davis introduced the
Hire More Heroes Act of 2013 into the House on November 13, 2013. The bill would allow employers to exclude veterans receiving health insurance from the
United States Department of Defense or the
United States Department of Veterans' Affairs from their list of employees. This would have kept their list of employees shorter, allowing some small businesses to fall underneath the 50 full-time employees line that would
require them to provide their employees with healthcare under the
Affordable Care Act. Davis said that the bill "gives our small businesses another incentive to hire veterans, which helps to address the increasing number of unemployed veterans, while providing them with some relief from Obamacare." He voted to reauthorize the
Violence Against Women Act. Davis voted for H.J.Res.59 – Continuing Appropriations Resolution, 2014, which resulted in the
government shutdown of 2013. After the vote,
Politico reported that Davis also intended to vote for a bill that would end the shutdown, stressing that an agreement needed to be made and that "Like most of those I represent, I remain opposed to Obamacare, but a government shutdown is absolutely unacceptable." Davis voted to lift a ban on travel to
Cuba. In June 2016, he cast the deciding vote on a bill to continue to allow undocumented immigrants brought to the U.S. as children to join the U.S. military. The program would give those who serve a quicker pathway to citizenship. During the presidency of
Donald Trump, Davis voted in line with Trump's stated position 88.8% of the time. As of September 2021, Davis had voted in line with
Joe Biden's stated position 25.7% of the time. On May 4, 2017, Davis voted again to repeal the Affordable Care Act and pass the
American Health Care Act (AHCA). Davis voted for the
Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017. He said the bill would improve the economy without increasing the deficit, and that Americans would see "more money in the pockets" by February 2018 as a result of the bill. In June 2018, Davis said, "we've got to stop this politicizing everything like dinner", adding, "Donald Trump was elected, in my opinion, because of this move toward making everything politically correct in this country." On December 18, 2019, Davis voted against
both articles of impeachment against Trump. On January 6, 2021, Davis was at the U.S. Capitol to certify the
Electoral College vote count when Trump supporters
stormed the building. Davis and his staff went into hiding under police lockdown for over four hours during the attack. After the Capitol was secure and Congress resumed session, Davis certified the election without objection. As a result of the attack, Trump was
impeached a second time. Davis voted against impeachment, saying, "there must be accountability for leaders who deliberately misled the public, but I fear that without thoughtful and clear-eyed leadership from both sides of the aisle, we are in danger of further violence and political unrest." In the wake of the attack, Davis objected to metal detectors which were placed outside the House chamber. On May 19, 2021, Davis was one of 35 Republicans who joined all Democrats in voting to approve legislation to establish the
January 6 commission meant to investigate the storming of the U.S. Capitol. In July 2021, Davis was among five Republicans Minority Leader
Kevin McCarthy selected to serve on the
Select Committee on the January 6 Attack on the Capitol. After Speaker
Nancy Pelosi rejected two of the selections, McCarthy pulled all five, including Davis. In November 2021, Davis voted against censuring
Paul Gosar, a House member who had shared an animated video of himself killing a fellow member of Congress and assaulting the president. When a majority of the House voted to censure Gosar, Davis criticized Pelosi, saying she had "torn the fabric of this House apart".
Committee memberships •
Committee on Agriculture •
Subcommittee on Biotechnology, Horticulture, and Research •
Subcommittee on Commodity Exchanges, Energy, and Credit •
Committee on House Administration •
Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure •
Subcommittee on Highways and Transit •
Subcommittee on Railroads, Pipelines, and Hazardous Materials Caucus memberships •
Climate Solutions Caucus •
Republican Governance Group •
Veterinary Medicine Caucus ==Political positions==