Jack Davis (industrialist)

rdf:langString Jack Davis (industrialist)

rdf:langString Jack Davis

rdf:langString Jack Davis

rdf:langString University of Buffalo

rdf:langString Ian Murphy

rdf:langString Jack Davis

rdf:langString Kathy Hochul

rdf:langString Jane Corwin

rdf:langString Alice Kryzan

rdf:langString Jonathan P. Powers

rdf:langString Thomas M. Reynolds

rdf:langString six

rdf:langString United States

rdf:langString Industrial engineer

rdf:langString Politician

rdf:langString Businessman

rdf:langString Democratic Party

rdf:langString Green Party

rdf:langString Tea Party movement

rdf:langString Working Families Party

rdf:langString Republican Party

rdf:langString Conservative Party of New York

rdf:langString Independence Party of New York

rdf:langString Barbara

rdf:langString John Davis (born 1933) is an American industrialist and perennial candidate 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 (twice as the general election candidate against incumbent Tom Reynolds and a third time in a three-way primary) and once as an independent. Davis's political campaigns are primarily motivated by 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 and decided to run as an independent on a newly created Tea Party line. Davis is the owner of I Squared R Element Company, a silicon carbide heating elements company that he founded in 1964. He is also known for filing a successful lawsuit against the Federal Election Commission in 2006, claiming that the so-called "millionaire's amendment" to McCain-Feingold Act was unconstitutional. The U.S. Supreme Court, with Justice Alito writing for the 5–4 majority, sided with Davis, striking down the millionaire's amendment as violating the First Amendment to the United States Constitution for fundamentally restricting the right of a self-financing candidate to spend his or her own money in a preferred way.

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