By David A. Fahrenthold, Updated: Thursday, August 16, 8:25 AMThe Washington Post
Former congressman Artur Davis, who officially seconded President Obama’s nomination at the 2008 Democratic convention, said Wednesday that he will cap a remarkable political metamorphosis by addressing the Republican convention this month — calling for Obama’s defeat.
Davis, 44, who served in the House as a Democrat from Alabama from 2003 to 2011, said in a telephone interview that he has been given a speaking slot at the Aug. 27-30 Republican convention in Tampa. He said he was not sure yet of the day on which he would speak.
But Davis said he planned to speak for millions of Americans who, like him, had traced a path from hope to disillusionment with Obama. After spending his entire political career as a Democrat, Davis declared in May that he has become a Republican.
“The one thing that I can bring to the table is to be something of a voice for that group of people,” Davis said in announcing his speaking slot.
Davis has since become a vocal advocate for Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney in Virginia, where he now lives. On Wednesday, he spoke on Romney’s behalf at an event in Ballston, attacking Vice President Biden for a recent comment that Republicans would put voters “back in chains.”
Davis accused Biden on Wednesday of spreading “racial viciousness” and said the vice president’s comment “ought to embarrass President Obama.” He said in a CNN interview: “It’s a divisive tactic that’s insulting to African Americans. It’s insulting to the American people.” He added, “It was wrong ... and the president ought to say it was wrong.”
At the convention, Davis said he would speak about areas in which he felt Obama had failed to deliver on his promises from 2008.
“President Obama — Senator Obama — ran on two broad themes,” Davis said. “One of those broad themes was reunifiying this country. And another broad theme was turning this economy around.... I’ll certainly be talking about those two failures.”
A spokesman for the convention organizers, Kyle Downey, confirmed in an e-mail early Thursday that Davis would speak but offered no other details.
While serving in the House, Davis became one of Obama’s earliest and most vocal supporters on Capitol Hill. In 2008, he told the Democratic convention crowd that watching the nomination of Obama, a fellow African American, “tells us everything that is right about my country.”
“This is the cause for which we stand: An American president named Barack Obama, who will lead and inspire the Free World,” Davis said then. “An American president named Barack Obama, who will stand for the rule of law, who will remember that torture is the way of the people who hate us, and not our way.”
In 2010, Davis sought to replicate Obama’s success in a campaign for Alabama governor. He was badly beaten in the Democratic primary by a more liberal candidate. |
