- Pritzker Fellows
- Former Fellows
- Tom Davis
Tom Davis
Former U.S. Representative from Virginia & Chair of the National Republican Congressional Committee
Fall 2018 Pritzker Fellow
Seminar Series: “Who’s Up? Who’s Down? Two Insiders Look at the 2018 Midterms”
Biography
Tom Davis (R-VA) was first elected to office in 1979, winning a hard-fought campaign to represent Mason District on the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors. This would be the first of 12 straight victories, a winning streak spanning three decades.
In 1991, after spending 12 years as a County supervisor, Tom defeated the incumbent chairman of the County board, taking the top elected office in Fairfax County, Virginia. Despite a severe economic downturn and a county budget deep in the red, Tom was able to implement a number of reforms that resulted in Fairfax being named the best managed county in the country by Governing Magazine.
In 1994, Tom successfully took on another incumbent, this time winning a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives to represent the 11th Congressional District of Virginia. He was the first freshman in 50 years to be given a subcommittee chairmanship, taking the gavel of the Subcommittee on the District of Columbia.
Tom previously served as Sr. Vice President and General Counsel of PRC, Inc. and Advanced Technology, Inc.
After the 2002 election, he was named chairman of the House Committee on Government Reform, gaining national prominence once again by chairing hearings on the use of performance enhancing substances in professional sports. The Committee has exclusive jurisdiction over two USPS. Other notable accomplishments include his hard-hitting but objective report on the federal response to Hurricane Katrina; his sponsorship of legislation giving the Food and Drug Administration authority to regulate tobacco; and passage of the National Capital Transportation Amendments Act, which authorizes much needed capital reinvestment in the Washington Metro system, and reforms of the Postal System.
He currently serves on the Boards of the Partnership for Public Service, is Rector at George Mason University and is President of the Federal City Council, a Washington D.C. Business organization.
Tom is a cum laude graduate of Amherst College and earned a JD degree at the University of Virginia Law School. He is married to Jeannemarie Devolites Davis.
Tom now serves as a Director for Deloitte & Touche in which he continues his effort to bring effective, common-sense solutions to government.
Seminars
“Who’s Up? Who’s Down? Two Insiders Look at the 2018 Midterms”
Across the country, the 2018 midterm campaigns have been some of the most intense, surprising, and hard-fought battles in years. Where is it all headed? In these seminars, we’ll get the inside analysis from Former Congressman Tom Davis, who ran the National Republican Congressional Committee from 1999-2003, and former Congressman Steve Israel, who ran the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee from 2011-2015. Together, they’ll analyze all the factors affecting the midterm elections, from pollsters and party politics to candidates, gerrymandering, demographics and, most importantly, the voters themselves. There is much conventional wisdom that governs how midterm outcomes are predicted, but American voters have learned to expect the unexpected. Will there be a blue wave or a red surge? These seminars will navigate through the last month of the campaigns, and, when it’s all over, discuss what the results mean for Congress and the Trump Administration going forward.
*This is a joint seminar series with Steve Israel
What are the unique dynamics shaping the 2018 midterm elections? What does history tell us? What does the data tell us? What factors in the American electorate shape their outcome? As we head into the final weeks of campaigning, how do we interpret what’s happening in crucial races across the country?
Using Minnesota as a case study, we’ll look at the different dynamics of challengers and defenders in urban and rural districts. In areas like the Twin Cities, suburban districts that were once Republican bastions see voters moving to the left, while Democratic strongholds like the Iron Range are now voting Republican. The Republican party is migrating from the country club to the county. So, who’s on offense and who’s on defense? What changing coalitions in the parties affect these races? Where else in the country is this happening, and what does it tell us about the electorate?
With Election Day just five days away, what is the state of play across the country? We’ll cut through the noise and the numbers, focusing on important trends, late-breaking national and local developments, key ratings changes, and, specifically, what to watch in the closing days.
What does the new make-up of Congress mean for the legislative agenda of the Trump Administration? For the agendas of the Democrats and the Republicans? What internal party leadership dynamics are already taking shape? Did the results further polarize the Republican Conference and Democratic Caucus in the House? And what, if anything, does this mean for 2020?