Tom Davis served seven terms in the House from Northern Virginia, including 2 cycles as NRCC Chair and as Chair of the House Government Reform Committee. In this conversation, he talks becoming obsessed with politics at an early age, working as a Senate page in the 1960s, playing a small role in the political operation of Richard Nixon, 15 years on the Fairfax County Board, 14 years in Congress, protecting the GOP majority in 2000 and 2002 while helming NRCC, why he left elected politics, the work he's most passionate about now, and his expectations ahead of the 2022 midterm elections.
IN THIS EPISODE..
One early moment when the lifelong political obsession started to click for a 6-year old Tom Davis…
Working as a teenage U.S. Senate page…
Tom spends 30 minutes in the Oval Office with President Nixon…
Tom’s early stint as part of the Nixon political operation…
Tom talks the political legacy of Virginia’s famed Byrd Machine…
Tom remembers his 14+ years on the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors…
Tom on the excitement as part of the 1994 House GOP wave…
Tom talks the political skills (and flaws) of Newt Gingrich…
Early impressions and surprises on his first term in the House…
Memories of tough votes surrounding the impeachment of President Clinton…
Tom’s path to running the NRCC in both the 2000 and 2002 cycles…
Inside the candidate-recruitment process of the Tom Davis-led NRCC…
Highlights of his tenure as Chair of the House Government Reform Committee…
The tough decision to pass on an open 2008 Senate race and ultimately forgo re-election altogether…
The two types of lobbyists in Washington…
Tom breaks down lessons for Republicans in Glenn Youngkin’s 2021 Virginia win…
How Tom is thinking about the 2022 midterms…
AND Amherst, Appalachian State University, appendages, John Boehner, Harry Byrd, Eldridge Cleaver, Bill Clinger, Carl Curtis, Tom Delay, Harry Dent, Everett Dirksen, David Dreier, Dulles Airport, David Eisenhower, Martin Frost, gay newspapers, George Mason University, Jim Gilmore, Barry Goldwater, Bart Gordon, Bob Haldeman, Jesse Helms, Eleanor Holmes-Norton, Jim Holshouser, Rush Holt, Linwood Holton, John Hostettler, Steny Hoyer, Roman Hruska, Hubert Humphrey, Andrew Jackson, Jacob Javits, Nancy Johnson, Kent State, V.O. Key, lifelong teetotalers, John Linder, Louisiana Smart, Malibu, Mike Mansfield, Terry McAuliffe, Wayne Morse, the Mountain Valley Group, no confidence votes, Oliver North, Barack Obama, Dick Obenshain, Bill Paxon, perfecting amendments, Colin Peterson, Jeffrey Pine, George Rawlings, rental seats, Tom Reynolds, Alice Rivlin, Willis Robertson, Win Rockefeller, the Rotary Club, Antonin Scalia, Chris Shays, slackers, Howard Smith, Billy Tauzin, the Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology, Charles Thone, Strom Thurmond, Tulane, Fred Upton, Bob Walker, John Warner, Mark Warner, the Washington Post, Watauga County, Roger Wicker, wiffle ball, Frank Wolf, Jim Wright, Dick Zimmer, Elmo Zumwalt & more!