[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 162 (2016), Part 6]
[House]
[Pages 8392-8393]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




WELCOMING THE HONORABLE WARREN DAVIDSON TO THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

  The SPEAKER. Without objection, the gentlewoman from Ohio (Ms. 
Kaptur) is recognized for 1 minute.
  There was no objection.
  Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Speaker and Members, it is my privilege to welcome 
Congressman Warren Davidson, his wife, Lisa; and their two beautiful 
children, Rachel and Zach, to Washington, D.C.
  To the Davidsons, their extended family, and their friends who are 
here to support them, we all wish you hearty congratulations. To 
Congressman Davidson, on behalf of a grateful Nation, I want to extend 
our gratitude

[[Page 8393]]

for your many years of service in the United States Army. Thank you for 
your dedication to duty, honor, and country.
  Though I am dean of Ohio's delegation, it seems just like yesterday 
when I was in your shoes. This moment you will never forget. You have 
worked hard to put together a winning coalition to win a hard-fought 
campaign, and that takes a dedicated person and a very giving family to 
make the necessary sacrifices.
  To accomplish worthy objectives during your time in Congress, you 
will want to find issues that you can build coalitions around and then 
enlist others on both sides of the center aisle in that cause. Perhaps 
the best advice I can give you is to stay close to the people where you 
came from in Troy, Ohio; in Clark, Miami, Darke, Preble, and Butler 
Counties; and as Daniel Webster's words inspire us through the ages, 
dedicate our efforts to a higher cause, developing the resources of our 
land, calling forth its powers, building up its institutions, promoting 
all its great interests, and seeing whether we also, in our day and 
generation, may not perform something worthy to be remembered.
  Welcome to the United States House of Representatives to Warren, 
Lisa, and your family.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Cincinnati, Ohio (Mr. 
Chabot) my dear colleague. He is the dean, the longest serving member, 
on the Republican side.
  Mr. CHABOT. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman for yielding, and I 
want to thank her for her kind words to our now-colleague, Warren 
Davidson. As the two longest serving Members from Ohio, she and I have 
worked together for many years, particularly on matters important to 
our great State of Ohio. I look forward to continuing to work with her 
in the future.
  Mr. Speaker, Warren Davidson is an American success story. Born and 
raised in the great State of Ohio, Warren enlisted in the Army right 
after high school. While serving in Germany, he witnessed the fall of 
the Berlin Wall. He impressed his superior officers with his dedication 
and leadership qualities and thus earned an appointment to West Point 
where he continued to excel, in fact, finishing in the top 10 percent 
of his graduating class.
  Upon his return to Active Duty, Warren's reputation as an outstanding 
officer earned him positions in some of the Army's most distinguished 
units: The Old Guard, the 75th Ranger Regiment, and the 101st Airborne 
Division.
  For many people, that would be a successful career. But Warren had 
more to accomplish. In 2000, he returned to Ohio to help out with the 
family manufacturing business. To prepare himself to run the business, 
he earned an MBA from the University of Notre Dame, where, not 
surprisingly, he graduated with honors.
  Warren brought the same work ethic and leadership abilities that he 
employed as an Army officer to grow and expand the family business. 
Since taking over the business, he has transformed it from a small shop 
with 20 employees to an enterprise now employing more than 200 people.
  Now Warren brings the lessons that he learned and the wisdom that he 
gained, both in the military and as a small-business owner, to the 
people's House, to Congress. Personally, I think that the House will 
benefit tremendously from his experiences, and I look forward--and I 
know you also will look forward--to working with him.
  With that, Mr. Speaker, I would like to welcome Warren Davidson, his 
lovely wife, Lisa, and their children, Zach and Rachel, to the United 
States House of Representatives.
  The SPEAKER. The gentleman from Ohio is recognized.
  Mr. DAVIDSON. Mr. Speaker, distinguished colleagues, and honored 
guests, it is a pretty good welcome. I thank you all.
  My new colleagues, surely you know how surreal this moment is. Not 
all of you had the same experience of a special election. It is a 
little different. But you have all been here and have been given the 
trust of your districts to come represent them and serve here, so I am 
sure you understand how surreal it is having already been here.
  I am really honored today to have a lot of folks with me. We all know 
that politics is a team sport. I have no greater teammate than my wife, 
Lisa. Our family was able to join us. Our daughter, Rachel, and my son, 
Zach, have been able to come on the floor. They took a fast route to 
the floor here. My sister, Robin, her husband, Larry, and close to 100 
other friends and family were able to come here. So having run 
campaigns, you all know that it takes maybe a battalion-sized element 
to put a whole campaign together. So in some way, they are 
representative of all the hard work that goes on to win a campaign. I 
could not have been here without them. So I thank you all.
  To really have come from the background, just enlisting in the Army, 
going to West Point, serving in some great units, and growing small 
manufacturing companies, doing all these things that we heard about, it 
is pretty, pretty nice. I have been focused on raising a family and 
growing kids. Frankly, in October, I was not planning to run for 
Congress. To come from filing 10 minutes before the deadline, jumping 
into a very competitive race, I understand that not a ton of you guys 
wanted the Speaker's job, and you got drafted. But about 15 other 
Republicans wanted the district Representative job, so it was very 
competitive. I am really thankful to have won the race and been able to 
come here.
  It is really an honor to be able to stand here and talk with you, my 
new colleagues. I look forward to getting to know every one of you on 
both sides of the aisle. I hope you will take the chance to get to know 
me. You can probably appreciate drinking from a firehose. I think I had 
about 2 or 3 hours now, maybe 4 hours, from my first meetings, whereas 
I think a lot of you had a couple of months, from November to January. 
I really hope to get to know you all.
  The Founders intended us to have a strong Congress, and especially 
with the Presidential race the way it is, Congress truly has an 
opportunity to show real leadership and to be able to have the chance 
to be here and do the incredibly consequential work, face the 
challenge, and perhaps be part of solving some great things is an 
incredible honor. So let's get around to it.

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