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Warren Davidson
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Ohio's 8th district
Incumbent
Assumed office June 7, 2016
Preceded by	John Boehner
Personal details
Born	Warren Earl Davidson (1970-03-01) March 1, 1970 (age 54) Sidney, Ohio, U.S.
Political party	Republican
Spouse	Lisa Davidson ​(m. 1995)​
Children	2
Residence(s)	Troy, Ohio, U.S.
Education	United States Military Academy (BS) University of Notre Dame (MBA)
Committees	House Financial Services Committee
Website	davidson.house.gov
Military service
Allegiance	United States
Branch/service	United States Army
Years of service	1988-2000
Rank	Captain

Warren Earl Davidson (born March 1, 1970) is an American politician and former military officer serving as U.S. Representative for Ohio's 8th Congressional District since 2016. Prior to political office he was an officer in United States Army Special Operations and led his family's manufacturing business. Davidson is a member of the Republican Party.

Personal life

Davidson was born and raised in Sidney, Ohio, graduating from Sidney High School in 1988.

Davidson met his wife Lisa in 1991 while he was entering West Point and she was serving as a missionary setting up Backyard Bible Clubs for Ohio churches. They married in 1995 and have two children. They reside in Troy, Ohio.

Military career

Assignments

Davidson enlisted in the Army after graduating high school in 1988. After training, he was stationed in Germany with the 3rd Infantry Division, during which time he witnessed the fall of the Berlin Wall. Soon after he received an opportunity to attend the United States Military Academy, graduating in 1995. He left with an officers' commission and a degree in American history, minoring in mechanical engineering. After West Point, he went to Army Ranger School and ROP indoctrination in 1996, subsequently spending time in the elite 75th Ranger Regiment, 101st Airborne Division and The Old Guard. He retired honorably from the Army in 2000.

He returned to serve in a new capacity at his alma mater when he was appointed to the 2020 United States Military Academy Board of Visitors.

Awards and decorations

Expert Infantryman Badge

Army Ranger Tab

Post-military career

Upon retirement from the Army, Davidson attended the University of Notre Dame for his MBA.

After graduate school Davidson returned to Ohio to help his father run the family business, West Troy Tool & Machine. Davidson purchased the business from his father in 2005 and transformed it from a small batch machining and fabricating business into a high volume contract fabrication and injection molding manufacturer. In 2014 Davidson and a business partner combined West Troy with another manufacturing group called RK Metals, with Davidson becoming managing director of RK Metals and president of West Troy. They renamed the combined business Integral Manufacturing in 2015. Davidson ceased affiliation with the company upon taking office in 2016, but continues to percentage lease facilities to Integral and a neighboring company.

During his time in manufacturing, Davidson served as Chairman of the Dayton Region Manufacturers Association, an industry trade group.

From 2004 to 2005, Davidson served on the Concord Township, Ohio, Board of Trustees.

United States House of Representatives

Elections

2016

Following the resignation of Rep. John Boehner from the U.S. House of Representatives, Davidson ran in a special election to succeed him, recruited heavily by fellow Ohio Congressman Jim Jordan. Davidson won the 15-way primary, all but guaranteeing his victory in the heavily Republican district's special election on June 7, 2016. He was sworn in on June 9, 2016. Upon election, Davidson was immediately asked to join the House Freedom Caucus, an invitation which he accepted from the group instrumental in pushing his predecessor to resign his seat.

2018

Davidson defeated Democrat Vanessa Enoch 66.6 to 33.4% in the 2018 elections.

2020

Davidson was re-elected in 2020 with 69 percent of the vote against repeat challenger Vanessa Enoch. He bought a brand-new suit to object against certifying the vote for Pennsylvania's Electors, and was so excited to wear his stupid west point mask that he forgot to remove the tacking stitch holding the vent flaps on his jacket.

Tenure

Committee assignments

• United States House Committee on Financial Services
  • Subcommittee on Monetary Policy and Trade
  • Subcommittee on Capital Markets, Securities, and Investment

Caucus memberships

• House Freedom Caucus
  • In 2019, Davidson made an unsuccessful bid for chairman of the caucus after Rep. Mark Meadows vacated the position, ultimately withdrawing in favor of Rep. Andy Biggs. Davidson has served as the caucus's policy chair since October 2019.
• Sound Money Caucus
  • Davidson created this caucus focused on financial stability, Dollar hegemony, and the wealth gap in July 2020, and serves as its chair.
• Republican Study Committee
  • Davidson is a member of the budget and spending task force.
• Army Caucus
• Blockchain Caucus
• Liberty Caucus
• Second Amendment Caucus
• Steel Caucus
• Values Action Team
• Warrior Caucus

Political Positions

Abortion

Davidson is staunchly anti-abortion except to save the life of the mother. On August 12, 2020, Davidson and Senator Mike Braun co-wrote a letter to Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin urging him to direct the IRS not to treat premiums for health insurance which covers abortions as medical care, stating "in all but the most extreme circumstances, abortion is an elective procedure."

Cryptocurrencies

Representative Davidson is one of the most prominent members of Congress on the issue of cryptocurrencies, discussing various coins, particularly Bitcoin, on the floor of the House, and has been described as a "vocal advocate of the industry outside the House."

Davidson has proposed the Token Taxonomy Act each of the last several sessions. The bill is designed to normalize cryptocurrencies into the US financial system, and provides for a nontaxable profit margin of $600 annually for cryptocurrency holdings, designed to incentivize use of the sometimes volatile token currencies by eliminating any tax burden on small value changes. The bill also specifies that token based financial systems are not securities.

Economic policy

Davidson cites his manufacturing business experience for guiding his economic policy principles. He is a strong believer in full expensing as a tax incentive stimulus, full expensing would allow businesses to immediately deduct the cost of any capital asset such as long term investments like buildings, machinery, or tooling from their current corporate tax bills.

Foreign policy and the military

Rep. Davidson has objected to America's overseas military presence, and the continued wars in Iraq and Afghanistan on numerous occasions.

He favors ending the Authorization for the Use of Military Force Against Iraq which he describes as "horribly outdated, inadequate for today's War on Terror, and stretched to the point of absurdity.. ..used to support ongoing missions.. ..against enemies, organizations, and nations with little or no connection to 9/11."

Davidson and Jim Jordan (R-OH) were the only members of the Ohio congressional delegation and two of 60 members of Congress that voted against a bipartisan resolution condemning President Donald Trump's unilateral withdrawal of U.S. military forces from Syria which passed the House 354–60 in October 2019. Davidson justified the position in an Op-Ed which called for an outright rejection of neoconservative foreign policy in which he said "the neoconservative consensus has left America less free, less safe, and burdened by unprecedented debt." He also urged NATO to stipulate that any actions taken by Turkey against groups like the Kurds in response to U.S. withdrawal should be treated as genocide and serve as grounds for removal as a treaty signatory.

He voted against the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2021 citing among other things "funding for military activity in Afghanistan with no change in strategy or plan to withdraw troops."

Healthcare

Davidson supports Republican efforts to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act. He has introduced his own legislation called The Patient Fairness Act aimed at expanding coverage via Health Savings Accounts (HSA's). It would expand availability of these tax-advantaged investible financial vehicles to a much larger swath of the population than the current propensity for only high deductible insurance plans to offer such a program. Davidson said he wanted to more than double the maximum investable allowance for the accounts, claiming it will build price transparency for insured patients, develop parity with employer sponsored healthcare, and by making them inheritable assets offer a vehicle to build inter-generational wealth.

Intelligence and surveillance activities

Davidson supports curtailing many of the broad signals intelligence permissions granted in the wake of the September 11th attacks which he has described as an "extralegal spying regime" of "vague laws and lax protections" He has worked to orchestrate several major attempts to reform the laws in recent years.

The first major attempt at reform came in Davidson's original cosponsorship of H.R. 5675, The Safeguarding Americans' Private Records Act (SAPRA) in January 2020 alongside the notably unusual coalition of Progressive Caucus Democrats like Pramila Jayapal and Freedom Caucus Republicans like Matt Gaetz. The bill aimed at significant reforms including new transparency of FISA Court decisions and ensuring 4th amendment constraints on "tangible things" requests subsequent to the decision in Carpenter v. United States. Efforts stalled however after House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler (D-NY) cancelled markup on the bill at the request of House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-CA).

Another came during debate over reauthorization of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), when Davidson worked with Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA), to introduce the Lofgren-Davidson Amendment. The amendment was to serve as an outright prohibition on warrantless search of American's internet activities by the Intelligence Community via Section 215 of FISA empowered by the USA FREEDOM Act (aka the Library Records provision). Reauthorization of the soon-to-expire Section 215 concerned a set of provisions known informally as the “business records” power, the “call detail records” authority, the “roving wiretaps” provision, and the never-used “lone wolf” amendment. The new language among other reforms would have constrained these powers by creating an affirmative burden on the government to be absolutely sure the target in question is not a U.S. person prior to obtaining internet records, and make unlawful the incidental collection of U.S. persons data via selection of all web traffic data for a particular video, search query, or webpage. In addition, if an order could result in a U.S. persons' data, it would have been unlawful without a warrant narrowly tailored to a specific subject. It also included a provision to eliminate the lone wolf amendment. The proposal mirrored a companion Senate amendment by Senators Ron Wyden (D-WA) and Steve Daines (R-MT), which had narrowly failed in that body. Davidson said he would support reauthorization of FISA so long as the amendment was included.

After Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee Adam Schiff (D-CA) made a statement to the New York Times suggesting that the Lofgren-Davidson amendment would not completely eliminate warrantless surveillance, Davidson and original Senate sponsor Ron Wyden quickly abandoned support of the amendment over fears that the agreement reached between Lofgren and Chairman Schiff over the weekend had betrayed much of the intent of the amendment with omissions and loopholes to be interpreted maliciously by the secretive FISA Court. Both went on to oppose the amendment and underlying reauthorization bill with Davidson saying "this is Rep. Schiff and intelligence hawks working overtime to protect the surveillance state status quo." The entire bill was later pulled by Speaker Pelosi after the president indicated he would veto and moderate republicans indicated opposition. Barring further action Section 215 powers lie dormant as authority expired March 15, 2020.

After Attorney General William Barr tried to suggest that FISA could be reauthorized with assurances the Justice Department would fix abuses through administrative rulemaking, Davidson pushed back against suggestions that any agency decisions could stand in for crucial legislative reform.

Rep. Davidson cited compromises of "Americans’ privacy in the name of fighting terror" as a reason for his vote against the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2021.

Welfare

Davidson favors welfare reform. He has argued that the political sensitivity of being the first mover to modify any social safetynet has a dissuasive effect on reform efforts. To combat this, he has proposed what he calls “welfare BRAC” - (an allusion to the bipartisan Base Realignment And Closure panels which consolidated and reformed US military installations) suggesting a panel of four Republicans and four Democrats to evaluate effectiveness of each welfare program and recommend changes, cuts, or consolidation of the 92 federal programs.

Electoral history

References

1. ^ "Republican Warren Davidson hopes to lead U.S. House 8th District race". dailyadvocate.com. February 1, 2016. Retrieved August 1, 2016.
2. ^ "OurCandidates Warren Davidson Biography". Our Candidates. May 25, 2016.
3. ^ Davidson, Warren. "About Warren Davidson". Davidson for Congress.
4. "Board of Visitors | United States Military Academy West Point". www.westpoint.edu. Retrieved March 9, 2020.
5. ^ "Congressional Veterans Caucus Members". Military Times.
6. ^ "Integral Manufacturing – About Us". Integral Manufacturing. Retrieved August 20, 2020.
7. ^ Davidson, Warren. "Warren Davidson LinkedIn Profile". LinkedIn.
8. "Financial Disclosures for Rep. Warren Davidson" (PDF). Clerk of the U.S. House of Representatives. August 13, 2017.
9. ^ Caygle, Heather. "Boehner's successor joins Freedom Caucus". POLITICO. Retrieved August 20, 2020.
10. Wegmann, Philip (June 14, 2016). "Meet Warren Davidson, the Man Who Took John Boehner's Seat". The Daily Signal. Retrieved August 25, 2020.
11. "Boehner race winner: 'This is like going back to active duty'". Cincinnati.com. June 7, 2016.
12. Sewell, Dan; Press, Associated (June 8, 2016). "Warren Davidson wins special House election in Ohio". wdtn.com. Retrieved August 1, 2016.
13. "Davidson will be sworn in today". Journal-News. June 9, 2016.
14. "Warren Davidson sworn in to fill remainder of John Boehner's term". daytondailynews.com. Retrieved August 1, 2016.
15. "Ohio's 8th Congressional District election, 2018". Ballotpedia. Retrieved August 18, 2020.
16. Staff, WLWT Digital (November 4, 2020). "Election results: Davidson wins reelection in Ohio's 8th Congressional District". WLWT. Retrieved November 4, 2020.
17. Pitman, Michael D. "Incumbent congressman to face familiar opponent in GOP primary". Dayton Daily News. Retrieved August 18, 2020.
18. Stewart, Chris. "Warren Davidson, Vanessa Enoch cruise to congressional primary wins". Butler County Journal-News. Retrieved August 18, 2020.
19. ^ "Committees and Caucuses". Congressman Warren Davidson. December 13, 2012. Retrieved March 9, 2020.
20. Swanson, Ian (November 30, 2018). "Three Republicans battle to succeed Meadows at House Freedom Caucus". TheHill. Retrieved August 20, 2020.
21. McPherson, Lindsey. "Biggs to replace Meadows as Freedom Caucus chairman, effective Oct. 1". Roll Call. Retrieved August 20, 2020.
22. ^ Cortez, J.P. (August 14, 2020). "New Sound Money Caucus Launched on Capitol Hill". Money Metals Exchange. Retrieved August 18, 2020.
23. "Budget & Spending Task Force". Republican Study Committee. Retrieved August 20, 2020.
24. "Members". Congressional Blockchain Caucus. Retrieved August 20, 2020.
25. Lujan Odera (October 16, 2019). "Congressman Warren Davidson Says Facebook Should Use Bitcoin Over Libra's Stablecoin". bitcoinexchangeguide.com. Retrieved October 18, 2019.
26. Davidson, Warren (April 9, 2019). "H.R.2144 - 116th Congress (2019-2020): Token Taxonomy Act of 2019". www.congress.gov. Retrieved August 20, 2020.
27. ^ "Principles for Tax Reform: A Conversation with the House Freedom Caucus". The Heritage Foundation. Retrieved August 20, 2020.
28. "Davidson: "Bring Our Troops Home."". Congressman Warren Davidson. March 3, 2020. Retrieved August 18, 2020.
29. Davidson, Warren (January 13, 2020). "A time for war, a time for peace — and always a time to defend America". The Hill. Retrieved August 18, 2020.
30. Davidson, Warren. "Trump is Right: Ending the Endless Wars Starts in Syria". The American Conservative. Retrieved November 25, 2020.
31. ^ "Davidson Rejects Partisan National Defense Authorization". Congressman Warren Davidson. July 21, 2020. Retrieved August 18, 2020.
32. Davidson, Warren (January 15, 2020). "My plan to expand HSAs and healthcare price transparency". Washington Examiner. Retrieved August 18, 2020.
33. ^ Davidson, Warren. "Congress Has a Chance to Reform the Patriot Act—But Moderates Want to Water It Down". The American Conservative. Retrieved August 18, 2020.
34. Crocker, India McKinney and Andrew (January 29, 2020). "New Bill Would Make Needed Steps Toward Curbing Mass Surveillance". Electronic Frontier Foundation. Retrieved August 18, 2020.
35. ^ "Lofgren and Davidson Urge Consideration of Internet Privacy Amendment". Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren. May 20, 2020. Retrieved August 18, 2020.
36. ^ "Davidson Praises Inclusion of Internet Privacy Amendments in FISA Reauthorization". Congressman Warren Davidson. May 26, 2020. Retrieved August 18, 2020.
37. ^ Cameron, Dell (May 26, 2020). "Wyden Pulls Support for Privacy Amendment After Rep. Adam Schiff Downplays Impact to NYTimes". Gizmodo. Retrieved August 18, 2020.
38. Savage, Charlie (May 26, 2020). "House to Vote on Limiting F.B.I. Power to Collect Americans' Internet Data". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved August 18, 2020.
39. Herb, Jeremy. "Democrats pull bill to reauthorize government surveillance powers after Trump threatens to veto it". CNN. Retrieved August 18, 2020.
40. "June 7, 2016 Special Congressional General Election Official Canvass". Ohio Secretary of State. Retrieved July 28, 2019.

External links

• Congressman Warren Davidson official U.S. House website
• Congressional campaign website
• Template:Curlie
• Biography at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
• Financial information (federal office) at the Federal Election Commission
• Legislation sponsored at the Library of Congress
• Profile at Vote Smart
• Appearances on C-SPAN
• U.S. patent 9,222,588

v t e Members of the U.S. House of Representatives from Ohio's 8th congressional district
Wilson Stanbery McLene Ridgway Vanmeter Thurman Taylor Corwin Stanton Shellabarger Johnston Hubbell Hamilton Beatty Lawrence Keifer Finley Keifer Little Kennedy Hare Strong Lybrand Warnock R. D. Cole Willis Key R. C. Cole Fletcher Mouser Fletcher Smith Betts Powell Kindness Lukens Boehner Davidson

• 1970 births
• 21st-century American politicians
• Living people
• Members of the United States House of Representatives from Ohio
• Ohio Republicans
• People from Sidney, Ohio
• People from Troy, Ohio
• Republican Party members of the United States House of Representatives
• United States Army officers
• United States Military Academy alumni
• University of Notre Dame alumni