Democrat Don Davis votes with the GOP as he seeks reelection in a toss-up congressional district

As he ran through a list of accomplishments and challenges at a meeting with constituents last month, Congressman Don Davis drew applause when he mentioned that the 1st Congressional District made history by electing him as the first Black U.S. Air Force Academy graduate to serve in Congress. 

Davis is likely in for a dogfight as he tries for a second term. Republicans in the state legislature configured the 1st District to slightly favor a Republican candidate. It is the only toss-up among the state’s 14 congressional districts. 

Davis is facing Republican Laurie Buckhout, a retired Army colonel, in November. A Libertarian candidate is also running. 

Gerrymandering in a district of historical significance

The district is politically significant in other ways. When Eva Clayton won the district in 1992, she was the first Black congressional representative from North Carolina since George Henry White was elected to a second term in 1898. 

Though it has mutated over the years, the district has been anchored by counties that are part of the Black Belt in the eastern part of the state. The South’s Black Belt was named for its fertile soil. The majority Black populations in some of the district’s counties, including Halifax, Hertford, and Bertie, are part of the legacy of slavery.  

The Greenville location at East Carolina University where Davis spoke to constituents isn’t in the new 1st District. Republican legislators changed the district boundaries to exclude Pitt County when they enacted new congressional maps last fall. 

“I don’t think it was gerrymandered against Don Davis,” Clayton said in an interview this week. “I think it was gerrymandered against whoever was in that seat.”

“It’s a disenfranchisement of Black people and poor people to accomplish their political aim,” she said. 

In interviews before Davis arrived, constituents for the most part said he is doing a good job. The region isn’t becoming more conservative, they said. The rightward lean comes from the way Republicans set the boundary lines. 

Voters in Pitt County precincts gave Davis 58% of their votes in 2022. Cutting it out of the district helps give an advantage to the GOP. 

“The Republicans are in charge in Raleigh and they’re just doing what they want to do,” said Gregory Tucker of Greenville. “All the Democrats can do is just sit there and take it.”

The 1st District is named in two lawsuits that claim it and others are gerrymanders drawn to dilute Black voting power. The lawsuits have been consolidated and assigned to a three-judge panel. It won’t be decided before the November election.  

The district has now had a Black representative in the U.S. House for more than three decades.

Charting a center-right course

Davis is a former mayor of Snow Hill, a small town in Greene County. He was serving his sixth term in the state Senate in 2021 when former U.S. Rep. G.K. Butterfield announced he would not seek reelection. Davis won the 2022 Democratic primary with Butterfield’s endorsement. 

In his first 15 months in Congress, Davis has produced a voting record distinctly different from Butterfield’s.

According to ProPublica, Davis ranks fourth among Democrats in voting against his party, which he does 12.6% of the time. The average House Democrat votes against their party 5.6% of the time. In his last term in Congress, Butterfield voted against his party 1.1% of the time.

Here are some of Davis’s recent votes:

• He was one of four Democrats who voted for a resolution “Denouncing the harmful anti-American energy policies of the Biden administration” sponsored by Republican Dan Newhouse from Washington state.
• He was one of two Democrats who voted for a House bill last week sponsored by North Carolina Republican David Rouzer that would change the Clean Water Act in ways environmental groups say will weaken it.
• He was one of three Democrats to vote for a bill sponsored by Colorado Republican Congresswoman Lauren Boebert to reverse a Bureau of Land Management rule on oil and gas leases.

GovTrack.us publishes an analysis based partly on bills that members have sponsored or cosponsored. Members that sponsor similar bills are grouped together on a chart. Davis appears slightly to the right of center on the chart in a cluster of Republican House members. 

A patients’ group supporting lower drug costs ran ads criticizing Davis for cosponsoring a bill that would weaken Medicare’s ability to lower drug prices for seniors. Davis was the only Democratic sponsor.

“We must support innovation, investment, and the development of new medicines to treat unmet medical needs, especially in underserved and rural communities. Diseases such as diabetes, Alzheimer’s, and cancer often have a disproportionate impact on vulnerable patients in these communities,” he said in a statement at the time. 

Davis’s campaign did not respond to requests for an interview made in January. He answered reporters’ questions after he spoke to constituents in February, but an aide canceled a scheduled one-on-one interview, saying Davis preferred to answer questions from reporters in a group.

Incumbency comes with inherent advantages, but the power of incumbency is declining, said Steven Greene, a political scientist at NC State University. 

It’s not surprising that Davis is voting for Republican bills, said Greene. In a contest that is going to be close, taking high-profile positions that buck the party line can help Davis attract Republican votes, he said.

“It’s a way to communicate, ‘Hey, I am not some far-left Democrat. I’m not part of The Squad,’” Greene said. “I am somebody who reflects some of the cultural values and concerns that residents of my district have.”

In his first weeks in Congress, Davis sponsored a resolution encouraging states that had not expanded Medicaid to do so. Republican legislative leaders in North Carolina were a few weeks away from announcing a Medicaid expansion deal. Medicaid expansion launched on December 1. Expansion has had an outsized impact on rural communities, where residents are less likely to have health insurance coverage. While about 19% of the state residents ages 18 to 64 live in rural areas, those residents account for 25% of those who have enrolled in expanded Medicaid, according to the state Department of Health and Human Services. 

Supporting the tobacco industry 

Davis has also been a vocal opponent of the FDA’s proposed ban on menthol cigarettes. He has spoken against the ban on the House floor, at public meetings, and co-authored a letter with Rouzer they sent to President Joe Biden saying a menthol ban would put Black farmers out of business and hurt the economies of small North Carolina towns. 

Tobacco is the leading cause of preventable death in the state and the country. 

Tobacco companies in the 1950s began targeted marketing of menthol cigarettes in Black neighborhoods in campaigns that grew to include billboards, free samples, ads in Black magazines, and event sponsorships. 

About 80% of Black smokers smoke menthols, more than any other group. 

“To be clear, I definitely share health concerns,” Davis told his audience in Greenville last month. “But I want to also share with you I have expressed concerns about this ban that would result in the loss of 6,000 jobs right here in the North Carolina’s economy with no replacement. We are economically challenged.”

The Biden administration delayed a final decision on the ban last year as public health experts battled with menthol cigarette supporters who warned that a ban could cost Biden votes.

Davis expanded on the topic of tobacco and health at a January “Our Ag Future” town hall sponsored by the North Carolina Chamber of Commerce, where he appeared with Rouzer. 

The talk of health should consider economic health as well as physical health, Davis said. 

“I believe that when you look at total health, that when a person is able to go to work and care for a family, that is tied to greater wellness and health,” he said. 

Clayton said she hasn’t kept current with Davis’s congressional voting record, but when he was in the state Senate, she talked to him about votes he took that she would not have taken. 

In the interview this week, Clayton said she supports bipartisanship as a way to move issues forward, but was disappointed to learn about Davis’s opposition to the menthol cigarette ban and some of his recent votes. Clayton said she saw Davis just a few days ago and is supporting him in his reelection campaign. 

“I’m not surprised he votes more Republican than I have,” she said. “I do support him. That doesn’t mean I support all his actions.”