Paul Davis in the Kansas House, 2003 to 2015

District 46

Davis took the District 46 seat in January 2003, succeeding Democrat Troy Findley, who left to join Gov. Kathleen Sebelius's staff. Announcing his bid for a fourth term in May 2008, Davis described the district as "east and central Lawrence." Ballotpedia records him winning re-election in 2004 and 2006 and running unopposed in 2008, 2010 and 2012 (8,920 votes in the 2008 general election). He did not seek re-election in 2014, the year he ran for governor, and Dennis Highberger succeeded him in January 2015.

Minority leader

By 2008 Davis was policy chairman of the House Democratic Caucus. When Minority Leader Dennis McKinney was picked by Gov. Sebelius to become state treasurer, House Democrats met on December 1, 2008, and chose Davis over Rep. Bill Feuerborn of Garnett, 29 to 18. Revenues were falling, and Davis said the caucus wanted "to protect education and social services." He held the post until January 2015, through the last Sebelius and Parkinson budgets and the first four years of Gov. Sam Brownback.

As leader of a minority caucus, Davis often needed Republican votes to pass anything. Wikipedia notes that he worked with moderate Republicans to pass a budget. Opponents read the same record differently. In 2014 Brownback's campaign argued that Davis had voted for the 2009 and 2010 budgets, which cut school funding, while attacking the administration for the cuts that followed (Lawrence Journal-World, Sept. 2, 2014). A Republican Governors Association ad that August claimed he had backed "the largest single tax increase in state history" and voted to raise fees on farm equipment. In his 2018 congressional race, Davis's campaign said he had voted more than 150 times to cut taxes and had helped build the coalition that passed the state's largest transportation plan. Those are claims made by the opposing campaigns; we have not counted the votes ourselves.

Committee assignments

As minority leader he sat on the leadership committees that handle the Legislature's own business, such as the Legislative Coordinating Council.

Bills and recorded votes

Sponsored bills. Ballotpedia lists four measures Davis sponsored in 2009: HB 2218, a "healthy workplace" bill; HCR 5003, a proposed state constitutional amendment on sex discrimination; HCR 5007, calling a joint session to hear a message from the Kansas Supreme Court; and HCR 5014, a resolution on rail service.

Sexually oriented businesses (2010 and 2011). In 2010 Davis voted for HB 2107, the Community Defense Act, which would have barred sexually oriented businesses within 1,000 feet of schools, churches, homes, parks, libraries and day care centers. When the bill came back in 2011 he voted against it, arguing with other critics that cities and counties should regulate such businesses and that the Legislature had more pressing budget problems. It failed in the Senate both times. PolitiFact reviewed the record in 2018 after a super PAC ad said he voted to "allow" strip clubs near homes and schools, and rated the claim Half True.

Voter registration (2011). Davis voted for the 2011 law that required photo ID to vote and proof of citizenship to register. He later said he had questioned the citizenship requirement while supporting photo ID. In 2015, out of office, he represented plaintiffs challenging the related registration rules in federal court.

Ratings. The Kansas Policy Institute's Kansas Freedom Index, which scores votes from a free-market perspective, gave him 36 percent in 2013 (as listed by Ballotpedia).

Where to look further

The Kansas Legislature's archived member pages and the House journals hold the complete record of his votes. The archive-era profile for the 2013-2014 session is linked in the sources below.