Jack Davis

Who is Jack Davis?

John "Jack" Davis is an American industrialist and politician from Newstead, New York. Davis ran four times for New York's 26th congressional district seat in the U.S. House of Representatives between 2004 and 2011, three times as a Democrat and once as an independent.

Davis's primary motive for his political campaigns is his concern that the country is being destroyed by U.S. free trade policies which he says have led to the outsourcing of jobs to foreign countries and the decline of manufacturing in the United States. Noted for his party-switching, Davis has said that had he won the 2011 election, he would have caucused in the House with the Republican and Tea Party caucuses.

A lifelong Republican, Davis switched to the Democrats after being kicked out of a fundraiser headlined by Dick Cheney in 2003 when he tried to ask Cheney questions about free trade policies. He then ran for the U.S. Congress seat in his home district, NY-26, in 2004, 2006 and 2008 as a self-funded candidate, pouring in millions of his own funds and coming close to beating the incumbent Republican Thomas Reynolds in 2006. In the 2008 election, however, he came in third out of three in the Democratic primary. He switched his affiliation back to Republican with the election of fellow wealthy industrialist Chris Lee, becoming an ally and supporter of Lee. After Lee's abrupt departure from Congress in February, 2011 Davis tried and failed to get the Republican nomination to replace Lee, then decided to run as an independent on a newly created Tea Party line.