To the surprise of no one in Upper East Tennessee, former Congressman David Davis appears ready to make one more run for the seat that he held for just one term-the Fighting First District, one of the most Republican constituencies in the nation:
Former U.S. Rep. David Davis says he's "strongly" considering a rematch against Republican Rep. Phil Roe next year, but that he doesn't expect to decide about the bid until until early next year. Davis fell fewer than 500 votes short of being re-nominated in last year's Republican primary for the 1st Congressional District in northeastern Tennessee.
Davis has made all the moves to make another try and is virtually certain to run, creating a sort of incumbent-versus-incumbent race in what is supposed to be an anti-incumbent year. Arguably, there are conservative (Davis) versus moderate (Roe) overtones for Republicans to consider as there were last time around -- though Roe has striven to mitigate the possibility. It should get interesting.
If David Davis is not running again, Captain Kangaroo re-runs will be found on prime time network television on Sunday night. Rightly or wrongly, Davis feels that he was robbed of his seat in the Republican Congressional primary two years ago. He believes that he (a former incumbent) can capitalize on anti-incumbent sentiment and recapture his seat. It isn't a far-fetched idea, but there is a lot of risk in running now for Davis, instead of considering, say, a return to the General Assembly. I have to believe that he is aware of the political gamble he is taking.
What is David Davis' political wager? All or nothing. Davis believes that he has a real chance to win the Republican Primary, but his reaction to his defeat at the last election spent quite a lot of his political capital. If he does not win the primary this year, his political capital will be spent to the point that any future candidacy will be viewed as a perennial candidacy along the lines of John Jay Hooker (no offense to Mr. John Jay). If David Davis wins, and does so handily, he may return to Congress and be there for many years, but if he should lose, it may be David Davis' political Waterloo.
Comments
Davis is toast. He cannot even carry Congressman Roe's water. Give it up David Davis don't get embarrassed.
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