 |
|
Friends, My name is Don Davis, and I want to share with you why I’m running for Congress. My roots in eastern North Carolina run deep. I was born in the town of Snow Hill just over 50 years ago — population 1,359. At the time I was born, my mom was a senior in high school. My grandfather had dropped out of high school to work on the farm, and my mother did not know her next steps. But my grandmother stepped in. She believed that education was the golden ticket and told my mom she needed to finish school and college no matter what. So, while my mom went to college, I grew up in Snow Hill with my grandmother. I worked the tobacco fields alongside my uncle and my neighbors and often went to church twice on Sundays with my great-grandmother. My mom used her math degree to become a programmer at IBM, and the day she picked me up, there wasn’t a dry eye in the family. I graduated high school, and went on to the U.S. Air Force Academy, where I became the first man in my family to graduate from college. After college, I was commissioned into the United States Air Force and spent the next eight years serving my country, including coordinating presidential operations at Andrews Air Force Base. When I moved back to Snow Hill to teach military studies at East Carolina University, I was greeted by the same friendly faces, tobacco fields, and BBQ spots from my childhood. The day my military service ended, I announced I was running to be mayor of my hometown. Now, I’ve represented eastern North Carolina for nearly 20 years as the mayor of Snow Hill and the region’s State Senator. But our rural communities are still hurting. While politicians in D.C. play partisan games, I fought to deliver millions of dollars in needed resources. I worked to expand high-speed internet, raise teacher pay, ensure that military pensions are tax exempt — and even secured over $215 million in funding for the ECU Brody School of Medicine to expand access to quality health care right here in rural North Carolina. I’m running for Congress because every family in eastern North Carolina deserves the opportunities that my grandmother fought for her daughter and me to have. Yours in service, Sen. Don Davis
|
