Lincoln Davis

Lincoln Davis
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Tennessee's 4th district
In office January 3, 2003 – January 3, 2011
Preceded by	Van Hilleary
Succeeded by	Scott DesJarlais
Personal details
Born	September 13, 1943 (1943-09-13)
Political party	Democratic
Spouse(s)	Lynda Davis
Children	Larissa, Lynn, Libby
Residence	Pall Mall, Tennessee, U.S.
Alma mater	Tennessee Tech University
Religion	Baptist

Lincoln Edward Davis (born September 13, 1943) is the former U.S. Representative for Tennessee's 4th congressional district. He is a member of the Democratic Party.

Early life, education and career

Davis has spent most of his life in Fentress County, a mostly rural county in the state's coal-mining region. He graduated from Tennessee Technological University in 1966 with a degree in agriculture. Davis, who now lives in the rural Fentress County village of Pall Mall, also owns a construction business, Diversified Construction Co., which builds homes, apartments and offices. Davis and his wife Lynda, an elementary school teacher, have three daughters, Larissa, Lynn and Libby, and five grandchildren.^{[citation needed]}

Early political career

Davis began his political career in 1978, when he was elected mayor of Byrdstown. Midway through his term as mayor, he was elected to the Tennessee House of Representatives, where he served two terms. He gave up the seat in 1984 to run for the Democratic nomination in the 6th District when Al Gore gave it up to make a successful run for the United States Senate. He narrowly lost the primary to state Democratic Party chairman Bart Gordon. Ten years later, he ran for the Democratic nomination in the 4th District after Jim Cooper gave up the seat to make an unsuccessful run for Gore's Senate seat. He lost narrowly again, this time to one of Cooper's former assistants, Jeff Whorley, who in turn lost the general election to Republican Van Hilleary. In 1996, he was elected to the Tennessee State Senate and served two terms there.

While in the Tennessee General Assembly, Davis supported state employee and teacher pay raises, long-term care for senior citizens, character education in schools and new domestic violence legislation. Davis initiated and fought for a bill requiring counseling and a 12-hour holding period for domestic violence offenders.

U.S. House of Representatives

Committee assignments

• Committee on Appropriations
  • Subcommittee on Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies
  • Subcommittee on Energy and Water Development
• Committee on Science and Technology
  • Subcommittee on Energy and Environment
  • Subcommittee on Investigations and Oversight

Caucus membership

• Caucus to Control Methamphetamine
• Congressional Rural Caucus
• Blue Dog Coalition

Davis is a moderate Democrat by Tennessee standards, but a conservative Democrat by national ones. He opposes abortion and gun control, stances typical of most Democrats from rural areas of the state. During his first run for Congress, he vowed not to allow his Republican opponents to "outgun me, outpray me or outfamily me."

Political campaigns

Midway through his second term in the State Senate, in 2002, Davis ran for the Democratic nomination in the 4th District when four-term Republican incumbent Van Hilleary gave up the seat to make what would ultimately be an unsuccessful run for governor. This time, he easily won the primary, and narrowly defeated Tullahoma Alderman Janice Bowling, who was also Hilleary's district director, in the general election. He was reelected in a 2004 rematch against Bowling and faced only nominal opposition in 2006 and 2008. Although the 4th is not considered safe for either major party, its size (it stretches across two time zones and five television markets) makes it very difficult to unseat an incumbent.

2008

See also: United States House of Representatives elections in Tennessee, 2008#District 4

Davis did not make an endorsement of the candidate in advance of the DNC's convention regarding Presidential campaign in August 2008. Hillary Clinton won the primary in his district by a significant margin, and John McCain outran Barack Obama there by 29 percentage points.

In the November 2008 general election, he defeated Republican candidate Monty Lankford, a hospital equipment company owner. Afterwards Davis was appointed to the House Appropriations Committee and the Energy & Water Subcommittee.

2010

Davis was a possible candidate for Governor of Tennessee in 2010. However, Davis announced that he had decided not to seek that office in January 2009.

Davis was challenged by Republican nominee Scott DesJarlais. Also on the ballot were Independents Paul H. Curtis, James Gray, Richard S. Johnson, and Gerald York. DesJarlais won 57.1% of the vote to Davis's 38.6%--the third-largest margin of defeat for a Democratic incumbent in the 2010 cycle, and the first time an incumbent had been unseated since the district's creation in 1983.

See also: United States House of Representatives elections in Tennessee, 2010#District 4*

External links

• Congressman Lincoln Davis official campaign site
• Biography at WhoRunsGov.com at The Washington Post
• Biography at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
• Voting record maintained by The Washington Post
• Biography, voting record, and interest group ratings at Project Vote Smart
• Congressional profile at GovTrack
• Congressional profile at OpenCongress
• Issue positions and quotes at On The Issues
• Financial information at OpenSecrets.org
• Staff salaries, trips and personal finance at LegiStorm.com
• Campaign finance reports and data at the Federal Election Commission
• Campaign contributions at the National Institute for Money in State Politics
• Appearances on C-SPAN programs
• Collected news and commentary at The New York Times
• Profile at SourceWatch

United States House of Representatives
Preceded by Van Hilleary	Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Tennessee's 4th congressional district 2003 - 2011	Succeeded by Scott DesJarlais