Republicans attack Rep. Don Davis for attending his grandmother’s funeral

Republicans are attacking Democratic Rep. Don Davis for missing a series of votes in Congress last year. Davis was absent because he was mourning the death of his grandmother.

Davis has represented North Carolina’s first district since 2023. He is running for reelection this year. His Republican challenger is retired Army colonel Laurie Buckhout.

The National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC), which works to elect Republicans to the U.S. House of Representatives, has a web page dedicated to attacking Davis. The page claims that Davis’ biggest liability is that he “doesn’t show up to work,” seemingly referring to a batch of House votes Davis missed in July 2023.

Davis’ grandmother, Edna Earle Harper Dixon, passed away on July 15, 2023. Davis made remarks at her funeral the following week.

“She believed in education and pushed all of her children … ” Davis said. “As I reflect on her life, and especially the last few years, and I ask myself, what was the one word she used the most, and it came quickly without hesitation, that word was love.”

According to the website GovTrack.us, Davis missed 42 votes between January 2023 and July 2024. Thirty-two (76%) of these votes were in the period around his grandmother’s death. If these votes are subtracted from Davis’ record, he only missed 10 votes, well below the average missed vote rate for most House members.

Davis has had a near-perfect voting and attendance record in 2024. In that time, he has sponsored seven bills, including the Student Veteran Debt Relief Act, which aims to ease education debt for military veterans. 

North Carolina’s first district is east of Raleigh and includes the city of Rocky Mount. A Republican gerrymander following the 2022 elections has made the district more competitive. The Cook Political Report, which analyzes elections, considers the 2024 race in NC-01 a “toss up.”