Paul Davis (politician, 1972)

Paul Davis (born July 12, 1972 in Woodland , California ) is an American politician of the Democratic Party . He was a member of the Kansas State House of Representatives between 2003 and 2015 and chaired the Democratic Group there from 2008. He was his party's candidate for the Kansas gubernatorial election in 2014, but was defeated by incumbent Sam Brownback in a very narrow decision. Davis ran for the 2nd Congressional District of Kansas in the United States House of Representatives in 2018 .

Family, education and work

Davis' family moved from California to Kansas a few years after he was born. He studied political science at the University of Kansas (Bachelor of Arts 1995) and law at the Washburn University School of Law , which he graduated with a Juris Doctor in 1997 . He then worked from 1998 to 1999 as the Assistant Director of Government Affairs in the State Administration's Insurance Department (Kansas Insurance Department). As a lawyer, he is a partner in the law firm Fagan, Emert & Davis. From 1999 to 2003 he advised the bar association in his state, of which he has been a member since 1998, on legislative and ethical issues.

Davis is married and has a daughter with his wife Stephanie. You live in Lawrence . He is a member of the United Church of Christ , a mainline church .

politics

Kansas House of Representatives

In November 2002, he ran for the Democratic Party for the Kansas House of Representatives , after serving in management and advisory roles in several state departments. His mandate for the 46th constituency, which includes much of the city of Lawrence in Douglas County , he took up in January 2003. Davis has since been re-elected every two years. In 2008, the Democratic Group elected him to chair. In the lower house of the State Legislature , Davis was a member of the Budget Committee. Still, his influence in the state parliament was limited, as the Republicans held a clear majority of the seats.

Gubernatorial candidacy

For the gubernatorial election in Kansas on November 4, 2014, the Democrats nominated him as a candidate after he had declared his candidacy for the highest office in the state in September 2013. In the party's internal primary in August 2014, there was no opposing candidate. In the actual election, Davis faced Republican incumbent Sam Brownback . However, Brownback was just able to prevail. Although rural Kansas was seen as a Republican majority, Davis was given a chance of winning the election. Between April and September he led most of the polls. His candidacy was also supported by more than a hundred Republican politicians who were dissatisfied with Governor Brownback's policies . Since he was no longer running for his parliamentary mandate, he left the state legislature in January 2015.

Congressional candidacy

In the 2018 election , Davis resumed his political career, running for the United States House of Representatives in the Kansas Second Congressional District . This constituency, which includes the east of the state up to the metropolitan area of Kansas City and which Davis won in his candidacy for governor, was considered contested in the election with no clear preference for a Republican or Democratic candidate. Davis was defeated by Republican Steve Watkins, less than two percent of the vote (46 to 48 percent). After his defeat, he announced that he would no longer run for a political post.