Sidney native runs for Boehner’s seat

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TROY — Warren Davidson, a 1989 graduate of Sidney High School, now living in Troy, won the Republican primary race in March in the 8th Ohio congressional district.

He bested 14 opponents for the chance to run against an unopposed Democrat, Corey Foister, and an unopposed Green candidate, James Condit Jr., in a special election in June to fill the unexpired term of John Boehner, who resigned from Congress in October, and to face them again in the November election for a full term.

In September of his senior year in high school, Davidson said the guidance counselor, Dorothy Franklin, pulled him into her office to discuss his future plans. When he told her that he wanted to be an Army Ranger, her response was, “You are a smart guy. You really should consider going to college.”

Early on, the Third Avenue resident delivered the Sidney Daily News. He later worked at Ponderosa and spent his time “hanging with friends.”

There were teachers who inspired him, including Nancy Marrs and Jane Thompson in elementary school.

“Terry Asbury did a lot of hands-on things in science,” he said, “and I always enjoyed his class.” In high school, English teacher Don Stephan and math teacher Tony Wagner had an important impact.

But by his own admission, Davidson did not take high school seriously. He had hoped West Point would recruit him for his wrestling prowess, but that didn’t happen. After high school, Davidson went to Army boot camp, where he excelled. He earned the Expert Infantryman’s badge as a private, something that rarely happens. His Skills Qualification Test Score (100 percent) was the highest in the 3rd Infantry Division. As a result of his abilities, he was selected to train with the 10th Special Forces Group and was sent to the Federal Republic of Germany.

He witnessed the fall of the Berlin wall in 1989 and the experience had a profound impact on his thinking. A few weeks later, he met some East Berliners at a pub in West Berlin. He misunderstood their queries about life in the West until they explained in more detail what it was they wanted to know.

“Were basic supplies, like milk, always available in stores and were stores actually open all night?” they queried.

“They had been taught that the scarcity of commodities that were part of everyday life in the East were even worse in the West,” Davidson said. “Those experiences are ones that helped to shape my philosophy. I came to learn that socialism and communism travel similar paths. Scarcity is one of the fruits of Marxism.”

Davidson’s performance as an enlisted infantryman led to his appointment to West Point.

“I loved West Point,” he said. “The curriculum is designed to make you an engineer. I expected that I would spend my entire career in the Army. I majored in history and minored in mechanical engineering. Had I known that I would leave the Army and dive into manufacturing, I might have chosen to major in mechanical engineering.”

The summer prior to entering West Point, Davidson was home on leave and accompanied his mother to Emmanuel Baptist Church. In Sidney for the summer was a young missionary. She caught Davidson’s eye.

“I elbowed my mother to find out who she was,” Davidson said. “I managed to get myself introduced to Lisa. Because she was a missionary, she couldn’t date. Needless to say, I was instantly attracted to her. We wrote back and forth to each other. She eventually moved to West Point and took a job as a nanny. Still with my coursework, there was not much time I could spend with her. We had time for church on Sunday mornings and Bible study on Tuesday evenings.”

After Davidson’s sophomore year, he and Lisa were engaged. One month after graduation, they were married. They have two children.

Davidson graduated Phi Kappa Phi in the top 10 percent of his class in 1996. He then went to Fort Benning, Georgia, where he began Army Ranger school. The 61-day combat leadership course is oriented toward small-unit tactics.

“I couldn’t fly because of my being near-sighted,” Davidson said, “so jumping out of planes was the next best thing. The Rangers are the best of the best and I knew that’s what I wanted.”

After Ranger school, Davidson was assigned to the Old Guard as a platoon leader. His 53-member platoon performed highly visible ceremonies in honor of national and international dignitaries. Rated the top platoon leader in the Old Guard, he was assigned to be the company executive officer for the Headquarters Company of the 75th Ranger Regiment. And he became frustrated with decisions being made in Washington.

“Washington employed a ‘see no evil’ foreign policy,” Davidson said. “We engaged in a military mission in the Balkans to shore up our European allies and clearly had no military objective. We lost six Rangers in Somalia and we left. We just quit.”

He became the assistant operations officer for the 3rd Brigade, 101st Airborne Division. His frustrations mounted. He had responsibility for coordinating and managing training resources for seven battalions and six companies.

“We were training for deployment, but there was no money for live-fire training, no money for fuel for either the aircraft or the helicopters. Yet, there was money for a $30 million study to see if the presence of urinals on submarines was a detriment to having women serve on subs. I didn’t want to leave the Army, but felt that I had no choice. The soldiers I was preparing for combat did not have the tools to do their jobs. There was no sane, rational policy. I knew it was time,” Davidson said.

“I moved home and went to work at West Troy, a metal-stamping and injection-molding company started by my father. I purchased the company in 2005 and grew the business. I bought a company in Utah in 2012 and moved it to Ohio, then in 2013, launched GSM, a mold- and die-making firm. It became clear that I needed a partner. Doug Tyger, a former AK Steel executive, purchased RK Metals in Fairfield, and we merged it with the companies I had been growing in Troy,” Davidson said.

“I don’t think I was alone in being surprised when Speaker John Boehner announced his resignation as the 8th Congressional District representative,” he said. “I would not have filed had I not thought that I could win and yet I knew that anything can happen in a campaign.”

Although Davidson entered the primary campaign with limited name recognition, he received 32.3 percent of the 130,865 votes cast.

“I hope to be able to call attention to the fact that Congress needs to do more than they are doing,” Davidson said while explaining his rationale for getting involved. “The Republican Party has had a majority in both houses, yet they continue to play defense. I believe that Congress will be much more important in the coming term. I want to take a strong set of values and beliefs to Congress and truly work to establish limits on the role government plays in our lives.”

If he’s elected, he hopes to serve on the House Armed Services Committee’s Subcommittee on Emerging Threats and Capabilities and the House Energy and Commerce Committee’s Subcommittee on Energy and Power.

“I’m also going to insist on drafting a bill that requires that Congress receive the same health benefits that we provide for veterans,” Davidson said. “If that happens, we’ll never again have to talk about the poor treatment being received by veterans through the Veteran’s Administration. Every member of Congress will personally make certain that veteran’s health benefits are delivered in a way that is appropriate.”

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Staff report

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