WASHINGTON – In 2010 after his failed bid to secure the Democratic nomination for Alabama governor, then-U.S. Rep. Artur Davis made a rather unceremonious exit from the Alabama political stage.
But two years later, Davis reemerged in shocking fashion by switching from Democratic Party to the Republican Party, which landed him a primetime speaking slot at the 2012 Republican National Convention.
A recent internal poll commissioned by Davis and leaked to The Daily Caller suggests there is at least a pathway for the former Democratic congressman for Alabama’s 7th congressional district to win a seat in Virginia, but this time as a Republican.
Davis’ poll is based on the assumption that current Republican Rep. Frank Wolf, the 17-term congressman for Virginia’s 10th congressional district, doesn’t seek an 18th term and retires.
Wolf has yet to indicate whether he will be retiring, however if he were to retire, it would be a wide-open contest for the Republican nomination.
A survey conducted by a Republican polling entity on June 30-July 2 — with a sample of 432 and margin of error of 3.44 percent — shows no clear front-runner among a handful of potential Republican candidates that included Davis, Virginia State Sens. Jill Holtzman Vogel and Dick Black, Virginia State Dels. Barbara Comstock and Tim Hugo, and Prince William County Supervisor Corey Stewart.
The survey also reveals Vogel and Black as front-runners but both coming in at under 17 percent with 31 percent of respondents undecided.
Those results suggest a contest that would be up for grabs, with Davis having at least a chance to pull off being elected to Congress in two different states, something that hasn’t been accomplished since Republican Texas-turned-New Mexico Rep. Ed Foreman did it in the late 1960s.
