<mediadc-video-embed data-state="{"cms.site.owner":{"_ref":"00000161-3486-d333-a9e9-76c6fbf30000","_type":"00000161-3461-dd66-ab67-fd6b93390000"},"cms.content.publishDate":1656019532208,"cms.content.publishUser":{"_ref":"0000017f-1e8d-dbf3-a77f-9fef485e0000","_type":"00000161-3461-dd66-ab67-fd6b933a0007"},"cms.content.updateDate":1656019532208,"cms.content.updateUser":{"_ref":"0000017f-1e8d-dbf3-a77f-9fef485e0000","_type":"00000161-3461-dd66-ab67-fd6b933a0007"},"rawHtml":"
$bp("Brid_56019518", {"id":"27789","width":"16","height":"9","video":"1033434"}); ","_id":"00000181-9274-ddcb-a3e1-df76b2ad0000","_type":"2f5a8339-a89a-3738-9cd2-3ddf0c8da574"}”>Video EmbedSPRINGFIELD, Illinois — In the final stretch of the heated GOP primary battle against a Donald Trump-endorsed rival, Rep. Rodney Davis said he feels good about his odds of winning reelection.
Davis, first elected to the House in 2012, is battling freshman Rep. Mary Miller for the Republican nomination in this safe-red seat stretching from the state capital down to Illinois’s conservative lower tier. The former president is set to hold a rally with Miller on Saturday near Quincy, Illinois, a Mississippi River community. But polling shows the lawmakers in a virtual dead heat just days ahead of Tuesday’s 15th Congressional District primary.
Davis is the top Republican on the House Administration Committee, a city council of sorts to manage operations on the south side of the Capitol. Davis has earned a reputation as an affable deal-maker in the chamber. He has embraced a localized campaign strategy, placing emphasis on meeting with voters and business leaders in the area to tout his record and discuss their policy concerns.
It’s an approach he feels will provide him with an edge on Tuesday.
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“I feel really good. Our internals, our data on the ground is very positive. We’re on track to hit [knocking on] 100,000 doors, and that to me, as somebody who used to run campaigns for other people running for office, you’ve got to look at the entire picture,” Davis told the Washington Examiner in an interview, referencing his earlier career as a campaign manager and then as a staff member for former Rep. John Shimkus, an Illinois Republican who represented much of the same region from 1997 to 2021.
“I can remember in the last general election when I was the Democrats’ No. 1 target and people would say, ‘How’s everything going?’ And I would look at our door data, and our door data usually mirrors if you’re having progress or not.”
Davis won his 2020 race against Democratic nominee Betsy Londrigan by a healthy margin, 54.5% to 45.5%. But Davis barely held on during the 2018 Democratic wave, beating Londrigan 50.7% to 49.3%.
Both races took place in the current 13th District, which is set to disappear at the end of this congressional term. Illinois lost a House seat after the 2020 census due to slow population growth. A plan enacted by state Democrats effectively forced Davis and Miller to run against each other in the new, more conservative 15th District.
The election is another litmus test of the power of the Trump endorsement, on which the former president has a decidedly mixed record in the 2022 cycle. Trump’s rally for Miller on Saturday is an effort to fire up the base to support her — that after top Republicans in the House tried unsuccessfully to keep Trump from endorsing in the Republican-on-Republican primary contest.
But in contrast to other rallies that Trump has held this cycle, where he has targeted GOP lawmakers who have publicly rebuked him, Davis has not shied away from his working relationship with the former president. Davis was the 2020 Trump campaign co-chair in Illinois. And Davis has repeatedly highlighted the bills on which he led that Trump signed into law. Most prominently, the 2017 Republican-enacted tax law, which Davis frequently touts on the campaign trail.
Davis said he believes the former president took some “bad advice” prior to endorsing Miller. Miller has been embroiled in multiple scandals, including allowing a convicted pedophile to assist in her campaign and coming under fire for saying, “Hitler was right about one thing,” during a speech shortly after she took office.
Davis also accused the conservative firebrand lawmaker of being a carpetbagger for opting to run in the 15th District after her home was drawn into a more competitive seat. Davis also has taken aim at Miller’s unwillingness to participate in a debate or regularly hold public events.
“Look, I talk more about me than I do about my opponent, and in the end, I find it amazing that she’s adopted what I call the Biden basement strategy to avoid answering questions,” Davis said. “I think it’s a legitimate question that needs to be answered as to why she had someone who served time in prison as a convicted pedophile for trying to lure a teenager into sex, why she allowed him to drive her car with legislative plates to events with children.”
“If that were me, I would have to answer that question,” Davis added. “And I would expect people that are public officials to answer that question.”
Miller’s office did not return a request for comment on whether the pedophile continues to be associated with the campaign and about the campaign with Davis more broadly.
Both camps have attempted to paint each other as “RINOs” (Republicans in name only) in attack ads. Miller accuses Davis of taking a softer line on gun rights and abortion and falsely accused him of supporting the Jan. 6 House select committee. Davis did not vote in favor of the select committee and noted that Miller did not cast a vote at all on the issue. Davis asserts that the narrative is being manipulated after he backed a bill to create a nonpartisan, 9/11-style commission to investigate the Capitol riot in which Trump sought to overturn President Joe Biden’s 2020 victory.
Davis was tapped by House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) to sit on the Jan. 6 select committee prior to his decision not to place any GOP lawmakers on the panel after Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) vetoed two of his selection. Davis has rebutted Miller’s accusations, arguing he has a conservative record, having received an A- rating from the NRA and consistently voted against pro-abortion rights legislation.
Davis says he opposes the structure of the Jan. 6 panel. He has vowed to conduct “a full investigation into Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the select committee’s circus” if Republicans take back the majority and he becomes the chairman of the House Administration Committee.
While Davis has expressed confidence in his ability to win the race, Trump remains popular in the district, which could have an impact on how his base votes. A recent Chicago Sun-Times/WBEZ poll showed that 86% of Republicans in the state have a very or somewhat favorable opinion of the former president. Miller has also been backed by Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and conservative outside groups such as the Club for Growth, which spent roughly $4 million in the race in support of her bid.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
But Davis asserted he is no stranger to tough election battles in which he’s prevailed. And while Davis may not have Trump’s backing, he has been endorsed by key members of the Illinois delegation, including Reps. Darin LaHood and Mike Bost, as well as Shimkus, his old boss. And along with 31 out of 35 GOP county leaders, a slew of state lawmakers and groups, including the Illinois Farm Bureau ACTIVATOR, the Illinois Police Benevolent and Protective Association, and both the Illinois and U.S. Chambers of Commerce, have also endorsed him.
“Look, anytime you have a member vs. member, you don’t know what’s going to happen. And you don’t know if people are going to support you, support your opponent, walk away. You don’t have to look too far than my financial disclosures to see that we’ve had a lot of support from my colleagues,” Davis said. “And that has been a very humbling experience for me. That tells me that I’ve built up a lot of friendships over my time in Congress.”
