Welcome to the 682nd original “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” profile, where today, we’ll be profiling the sitting member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Ohio’s 8th District, Warren Davidson, who was first elected to office in June of 2016, shortly after former Speaker of the House John Boehner said, “F*** this s***,” and peaced out of of Congress. As part of the GOP gerrymandering of House districts after the 2010 elections, Boehner made sure that his own home district was galvanized to protect him from being booted by any Democratic challenger, making it the reddest district in all of Ohio. So when he retired, no less than fifteen…. Yes FIFTEEN Republicans battled it out like it was the goddamned Hunger Games to take his place in Ohio’s 6th for the remainder of his term, which Davidson then coasted to victory in the general special election to establish himself as the incumbent. A short time later, the vote was practically just done over again for the November election, and he again breezed to victory against a Democrat, because of the +17 Republican lean in the Cook Partisan Voting Index. Almost immediately after arriving in Washington, D.C., Davidson issued what could be interpreted as a final “F*** you” to Boehner as he left office, immediately joining the Republican House Freedom Caucus that constantly was trying to bring about his predecessor’s downfall, and ultimately made Boehner resign in frustration to go work for the medical marijuana lobby. (We’re not going to lie, Boehner really does seem to be laughing last.)
So how the heck did a guy who’s only been in office for just about two years earn himself a place in CSGOPOTD?
Well, simply put… Warren Davidson seems to REALLY hate poor people.
This series of posts never hesitates to thank Republicans who served in our armed forces for that service. However, we still reserve the right to call out those veterans for bulls*** unrelated to it when necessary. And while we’ll salute Warren Davidson for his time as a U.S. Army Ranger without hesitation, we still think it’s truly f***ed up that he went to a gathering of veterans to gripe about “moochers” who were within the V.A. Medical system, and kick them out of it. For someone well off like Davidson, maybe having your medical care paid for by the Department of Veteran’s Affairs isn’t a choice he has to make… but for every blue-collar veteran with injuries endured in the service without a six-figure salary to pay for physical or mental health treatments to be turned away? That… is some bulls***. And it’s frankly outrageous that someone would begin playing the “welfare queens” card on fellow service members like that. When people enlist, part of the agreement with the government that a service member gets is, after your service is over, the government helps you take care of your medical needs. That’s a hell of a thing to call “mooching”.
Anyway, that one-off comment wasn’t the only time that Rep. Davidson popped off about who actually “deserves” medical coverage. At his first town hall as a Congressman in early 2017, Davidson was hammered with questions about the GOP’s wishes to repeal the Affordable Care Act, even if there was no replacement for it. Thus, the following exchange occurred, resulting in gasps and boos from those assembled:
Constituent: “My son did not have health insurance for four years, until the ACA when Medicaid was accepted. He didn’t have health insurance because he’s in the service industry. And that industry pays minimum wage and they keep their employees below a certain number of hours so that they cannot – so that they don’t have to pay health insurance. So, many of the people that are on Medicaid are working, and they are the working poor. Under Trumpcare, one of the major ways to make health insurance affordable is to bring back catastrophic insurance, which is basically no insurance at all. Given that, given that preventative health care is the number one way to keep people healthy in our society, can you explain why my son and millions of others in his situation are not deserving of affordable, decent healthcare that has essential benefits so that he can stay healthy and continue working?”
Warren Davidson: “OK, I don’t know anything about your son, but as you described him, his skills are focused in an industry that doesn’t have the kind of options that you want him to have for health care. So, I don’t believe that these taxpayers here are entitled to give that to him. I believe he’s got the opportunity to go earn those health benefits.”
Yes, he pretty much just told a woman that her son deserved to die because he wasn’t “skilled” enough, and that he has to “earn” the right to keep living. Great work, Warren. Making the GOP look real sympathetic out there. And if you’re wondering if he just misspoke, no, he doubled down on his statement.
Davidson is also a climate change denier, thinks Sharia Law is a threat to the United States and our Constitution (even though the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment would defend against it quite nicely, but hey, why not be an Islamophobe?), would like to redefine marriage as only between one man and one woman while allowing businesses the “religious freedom” to discriminate against the LGBTQ community, and is a supporter of Personhood.
If you’re thinking the above two stories might be an indicator that Warren Davidson’s voting record has a mile-wide streak of being uncaring for his fellow Americans, you might be right:
- March 16th, 2017: Warren Davidson votes for HR 1181, which would allow veterans deemed mentally incompetent to continue to own firearms, and not have them taken away without a judge’s written order.
- May 4th, 2017: Davidson votes for the GOP’s healthcare plan, that would allow 24,000 more people to die a year, give $50,000 in tax breaks to millionaires, would eliminate coverage for pre-existing conditions, and would treat pregnancy, postpartum depression, and sexual assault as “pre-existing conditions”. Oh, and a provision in the Lee would make sure that Davidson would be allowed to keep his healthcare plan as it exists under the ACA, which would be repealed for the rest of the country. He and his Republican compatriots threw themselves a beer bash to celebrate taking away healthcare from millions and then gloated about it with Donald Trump at a White House press conference, as well.
- June 8th, 2017: Warren Davidson votes for HR 10, the GOP’s attempt to repeal Dodd-Lee financial reform, because what the country really needs is to allow the big banks to make the same mistakes that imploded the economy only a decade earlier.
- September 8th, 2017: Rep. Davidson chooses to be one of 90 Republicans in Congress who votes against disaster relief for Hurricane Harvey.
- October 3rd, 2017: Davidson votes for HR 36, the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, that would try to create an unconstitutional ban abortion at 20 weeks (even though medical science tells us fetuses do not have the capability to feel pain until 29 weeks).
- February 18th, 2018: Davidson and his fellow Republicans decide that poor big businesses are suffering too much at the hands of the Americans with Disabilities Act too much, and votes for HR 620, which would strip most of the civil rights protections guaranteed by it.
Regrettably, now that Warren Davidson has been able to establish himself as an incumbent, no one bothered to challenge him in the 2018 GOP Primary for his seat, and he goes into November with that highly gerrymandered partisan advantage to face off against Democrat Vanessa Enoch, a union leader and public policy expert who’s got the Herculanean labor ahead of her of flipping John Boehner’s old seat. Whether or not she wins, all signs indicate she won’t pull any punches while campaigning against Davidson, and make the case for progressive policies for our country. We wish her the best in her upset attempt.
One Year Ago, July 6th, 2017: Tony Shipley (TN)… 2017 Update
Two Year Ago, July 6th, 2016: Tony Shipley (TN)…2016 Update
Three Years Ago, July 6th, 2015: Tony Shipley (TN)… Original Profile