Name: Peter Davidson
Hometown: Little Rock, Ark.
Occupation: Military legislative assistant for Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif.
Age: 28
Alma mater: Bachelor’s degree from Harding University, master’s degree from Ben-Gurion University in Beersheba, Israel
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Washington Examiner: Tell me a little bit about how you got to Capitol Hill.
Davidson: I started in spring of 2011 as an intern for Congressman Tim Griffin of Arkansas, the second district. He was my representative. I did that right after college for a month, then I immediately left and went overseas for two years to Israel to do my graduate work in Middle Eastern studies with a focus on modern Israeli history.
Examiner: What brought you to Duncan Hunter’s office?
Davidson: After coming back from graduate school, I thought I was going to do a PhD and I just needed a job briefly while I applied. Mr. Griffin said if you ever need a job, just let me know, and I needed a job. I started out actually as his veterans case worker in his district office in rural Arkansas and just worked my way up from there. With my graduate degree, they brought me up to the D.C. office to do foreign affairs work for them. Then he actually retired and is the lieutenant governor of Arkansas now, so I came on with Mr. Hunter as his military legislative assistant and have been working here for a year and three months.
Examiner: Do you have a military background? How did you end up working with military issues?
Davidson: My bread and butter was foreign affairs and I started doing a lot of veterans work for Mr. Griffin previously, and then defense work for him. It was kind of just a natural transition. I wanted to work in defense issues once I started working in Congress and getting the feel for it. I just really have a passion for veterans and all who serve in the military.
Coming from the South, it’s a really big part of who we are. Most of my friends in high school did multiple tours in Iraq so it was something that was very personal for me to see my friends going through all they did overseas and then coming back and oftentimes battling severe [post-traumatic stress]. I just really wanted to try to make a difference and help our warfighters as much as possible. It’s really my passion now. Thankfully, Mr. Hunter, that’s what he cares about too.
Examiner: Can you talk a little bit about your job now and any interesting projects or legislation on which you’ve worked?
Davidson: We have the benefit of being on the Armed Services Committee of, unless the president plays politics, passing a bill every year. Working on the National Defense Authorization Act, we are always engaged with ensuring that our warfighters have the necessary tools to accomplish the mission. Mr. Hunter and his chief of staff Joe Kasper have been really engaged in helping service members on a personal level, whether it’s working on upgrading their medals that they deserve or helping them when they’re in tough spots when oftentimes the bureaucracy in the Pentagon is getting in the way of what the warfighter actually needs.
They have really taken me under their wing and given me the ability as well to pursue helping service members on an individual basis. There’s so many times in D.C., it’s all theory. You never see how it actually affects the warfighter. On these specific cases that we work, these personnel cases, we see the results of oftentimes these stupid policies.
Examiner: What’s the most frustrating thing about working on Capitol Hill?
Davidson: Convincing people to help. We’ve been involved in so many high-profile cases. I remember this one instance, everyone knows that this Green Beret [Sgt. 1st Class Charles Martland] did a great thing. The issue was this Green Beret stood up against a child rapist [but was being discharged from the Army]. We had people contacting us in Congress saying where is this guy from, can we help him? And then when they’d hear he wasn’t from their district, they’d say, oh wow, I really wish he was from wherever
We don’t care where you’re from. If this is right, we’re going to help you. That’s our job in Congress is oversight and we care about our district, we care about the people of California, absolutely, but if you’re an American and being wronged, we care about you. Getting that message across is very frustrating, but I like to think with Mr. Hunter’s leadership that we’re trying to accomplish that mission.
Examiner: What do you like to do outside of work?
Davidson: Hang out with my wife and baby. I have a seven-month-old child. I like to hang out with them, go run and I like to be as active in my synagogue as I can.
