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A Trump Victim Tells All

Rodney Davis has spent a decade representing Illinois’s 13th district before being deemed by voters as insufficiently Trumpy and losing to a mega-MAGA candidate this summer. Now, as he prepares to leave Washington, he candidly opens up about the future of the party, the DeSantis question, Trump’s endorsement strategy, and hypocrisy on both sides of the aisle.

Rodney Davis
Photo: Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images
Tara Palmeri
August 8, 2022

Last Wednesday, I caught up with Rep. Rodney Davis after a big election night in Republican politics—one in which a single Eric was named victor in Missouri, Trump-backed candidates Blake Masters and Kari Lake won their primaries in Arizona, and ultra-conservative Kansas saw unprecedented turnout in support of abortion rights. Davis, who has been representing Illinois’s 13th congressional district since 2012, has been named one of the top 10 most bipartisan Republicans in Congress. And while Davis did not vote to impeach Donald Trump after January 6, he did vote to certify the election.