Rep. Jo Ann Davis (R) Elected 2000, 3d term
Born:	June 29, 1950, Rowan Cnty., NC
Home:	Yorktown
Education:	Hampton Roads Bus. Col.
Religion:	Assembly of God
Marital Status:	married (Chuck)
Elected  Office:	VA House of Del., 1997-2000.
Professional Career:	Real estate broker, 1984-2000; Founder, Davis Mgt. Co., 1988; Founder, Jo Ann Davis Realty, 1990.
DC Office	1123 LHOB20515, 202-225-4261; Fax: 202-225-4382; Web site: www.house.gov/joanndavis
State Offices	Fredericksburg, 540-548-1086; Tappahanock, 804-443-0668; Yorktown, 757-874-6687.
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When English settlers first sailed up the estuaries that flow into the Chesapeake Bay, they were searching for gold, hoping to sail back soon with fortunes. But they couldn't help noticing that the spot where the James River feeds into the bay, now Hampton Roads, was a fine natural harbor, with calm, deep water and good anchorages. There they established a civilization whose elegance is recalled in the craftsmanship of restored Williamsburg and whose coarseness and brutality is brought to life by the story of Jamestown and the other beleaguered settlements. Tidewater Virginia brought slavery to America and tobacco to the world, and slave-raised tobacco was the center of its economy in the colonial era and in the years afterward, when its most talented sons left its depleted soil for better opportunities elsewhere.

Now the economy and tone of life in Tidewater Virginia are set by the American military. Six decades ago, as America faced world war, the Navy base at Norfolk and the shipbuilding centers in Newport News across Hampton Roads became the center of American naval might in the Atlantic. There were fewer than 370,000 people living then on both sides of Hampton Roads. Today there are nearly 1.6 million--a population collected from all over the country, making this a metropolitan area that is not so much Southern in atmosphere as it is, in the manner of military bases abroad, national.

The 1st Congressional District of Virginia contains much of this territory. The district ranges as far north from the Peninsula as rural Fauquier County, outside Washington, D.C., but the bulk of the population lives between the Potomac and James Rivers. Redistricting parceled most of the major Hampton Roads military installations into the surrounding congressional districts, but the 1st remains steeped in military culture, both past and present, and the Department of Defense continues to be a significant employer. Within the district lines, in 1781, George Washington's tattered and exhausted army at Yorktown finally pushed General Cornwallis to the sea where the French Navy waited: The final victory of the Revolutionary War. Today, historic Yorktown is adjacent to a Naval Weapons Station on the banks of the York River. To the north, in Caroline County, Fort A.P. Hill serves as a valuable training site for active and reserve-component units. Not far from there is Naval Surface Warfare Center Dahlgren, located on the Potomac River, originally established as the Navy's main proving ground for large-caliber guns. The 1st includes within its boundaries all of 13 counties and parts of five others; all of the cities of Fredericksburg and colonial Williamsburg; the Marine Corps Base at Quantico; the more populous and developed part of Spotsylvania County; and the Northern Neck between the Rappahannock and Potomac Rivers, where Robert "King" Carter, one of the great landowners of colonial Virginia, reigned, and where George Washington and Robert E. Lee were born. In the Hampton Roads area, the 1st includes parts of Hampton, Newport News, Poquoson, Williamsburg and York County--primarily north of Mercury Boulevard, once known as Military Highway but renamed to honor the Mercury 7 astronauts. About 45% of the district's votes are cast in the Hampton Roads area and about 40% in the metro Washington orbit. Ancestrally, much of this area was Democratic. But with a large military population drawn from across the country (and with heavily black precincts placed in the adjoining 3d District), the 1st District is now reliably Republican in most elections.

The congresswoman from the 1st District is Jo Ann Davis, a Republican first elected in 2000. She grew up in the Hampton Roads area; her father worked at a gas station and drove city buses in Hampton. She graduated from Hampton Roads Business College and went to work as an executive secretary for a real estate firm for several years before becoming a stay-at-home mom, then started a real estate career in 1988. Davis was elected to the House of Delegates in 1997, defeating a 15-year incumbent who outspent her 3-to-1. When 1st District Congressman Herb Bateman announced his retirement in January 2000, she jumped into the race three days later. She faced four other candidates for the Republican nomination, including real estate entrepreneur Paul Jost, who spent almost $1 million of his own money and won the endorsement of Governor James Gilmore. Davis, who spent less than one-tenth that sum, appealed to conservative activists, especially in the district's rural counties. She favored a Social Security lockbox, more flexibility to the states on education funding, elimination of the marriage penalty and estate taxes and protection of Second Amendment rights. Turnout was light and Davis won just 14,274 votes, but that was enough to defeat Jost 35%-30%. In the general, she faced Democrat Lawrence Davies, a Baptist minister and mayor of Fredericksburg for 20 years. The two biggest issues of the campaign were abortion rights--Davis against, Davies for--and the proposed King William reservoir, which many local officials said was necessary to meet the Peninsula's water demand: Davis considered it too expensive and Davies defended it as necessary for growth. Davis won 58%-37%.

In the House, Davis has been a strict conservative on cultural issues but toward the middle of House Republicans on economic and foreign policy. Not surprisingly, she got a seat on the Armed Services Committee. She reintroduced a bill to require the Navy to have no fewer than 375 vessels in active service, including 15 aircraft carrier battle groups and 15 amphibious ready groups; as of 2004, the Navy fleet had 294 ships. She defied Republican leaders by winning approval of her amendment to limit the Navy's ability to lease foreign-built ships. "When the Defense Department has a long-term need for ships," she said, "it ought to buy them from U.S. shipyards, or our industrial and skill capabilities will continue to erode." In October 2004, she got more than 50 House members to sign her letter urging Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to reject a Navy plan to delay ship construction, including the new CVN-21 aircraft carrier, to be built at Newport News. She has secured funds to scrap several dozen ships from the "ghost fleet" that have been anchored on the James River. Davis defended the decision to invade Iraq as "a tough vote but the right one." Following a visit to the Mideast, she voiced doubt about President Bush's "roadmap" for peace between Israel and the Palestinians. "I'm not sure we have the right to be giving up any part of Jerusalem," she said. "That land belongs to the Lord." Davis won passage of a bill to assure that survivors of military personnel killed on duty receive the full additional life insurance benefit up to $250,000. In August 2004, Davis gave up her seat on the Government Reform Committee--and chairmanship of its Civil Service and Agency Organization Subcommittee--to join the Intelligence Committee. She voted against final approval of the intelligence bill because it did not include prohibitions on drivers' licenses to illegal aliens. At home, she backed six Indian tribes seeking federal recognition before the 400th anniversary of Jamestown.

Davis has been reelected without major-party opposition.

Committees

• Armed Services (17th of 34 R): Military Personnel; Projection Forces.
• International Relations (15th of 27 R): Europe & Emerging Threats; Middle East & Central Asia.
• Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (7th of 12 R): Intelligence Policy (Chmn.); Terrorism, Human Intelligence, Analysis & Counterintelligence.

Group Ratings (More Info)
	ADA	ACLU	AFS	LCV	ITIC	NTU	COC	ACU	NTLC	CHC
2004	10	0	25	9	60	62	90	88	86	100	--
2003	15	--	13	5	--	60	80	84	--	--	--

National Journal Ratings (More Info)
	2003 LIB	--	2003 CONS		2004 LIB	--	2004 CONS
Economic	33%	--	64%		43%	--	56%
Social	30%	--	65%		9%	--	85%
Foreign	38%	--	60%		22%	--	77%
For National Journal's complete 2004 Vote Ratings, as well as previous ratings dating back to 1995, please click here.

Key Votes Of The 108th Congress (More Info)
1. Drilling in ANWR Y 2. Approve Bush Tax Cuts Y 3. Medicare/Rx Bill Y 4. Bar Overtime Pay Regs. N 5. DC School Vouchers Y 6. Ban Human Cloning Y		7. Restrict Gun Liability Y  8. Ban Partial-Birth Abortion Y  9. Ban Same-Sex Marriage Y 10. Fund Iraq War Y 11. Bar Cuba Embargo Funds N 12. Intelligence Reorg. Y

Election Results (More Info)
	Candidate	Total Votes	Percent	Expenditures
2004 general	Jo Ann Davis (R)	225,071	79%	$375,339
	William Lee (I)	57,434	20%
	Other	4,029	1%
2004 primary	Jo Ann Davis (R)	unopposed
2002 general	Jo Ann Davis (R)	113,168	96%	$280,852
	Other	4,829	4%
Prior winning percentages: 2000 (58%)

2004 Presidential Vote Bush (R) 188,417 (60%) Kerry (D) 122,771 (39%)

2000 Presidential Vote Bush (R) 146,914 (58%) Gore (D) 98,731 (39%)

For 1992 and 1996 presidential results in the First District, please see the Almanac 2000 online. Please note that these older returns reflect district lines as they existed prior to 2002 redistricting.

• Cook Partisan Voting Index: R + 9
• District Size: 4,612 square miles
• Population in 2000: 643,514; 64.0% urban; 36.0% rural
• Median Household Income: $50,257; 6.7% are below the poverty line
• Occupation: 22.1% blue collar; 62.8% white collar; 15.0% gray collar; 17.7% military veterans
• Race/Ethnic Origin: 74.7% White, 18.4% Black, 1.7% Asian, 0.4% Amer. Indian, 0.1% Hawaiian, 1.6% Two+ races, 0.2% Other, 3.0% Hispanic origin
• Ancestry: 10.7% English, 10.4% German, 8.8% Irish
• Click here for statewide demographic data.