Election 2026: New ad spot, for Davis, spins border security to voters

The newest spot says he’s cosponsoring the CATCH Fentanyl Act – though it never mentions its author, Republican Rep. Clay Higgins of Iowa.

Davis is challenged for the second consecutive cycle by Republican Laurie Buckhout. Libertarian Tom Bailey is also on the Nov. 3 ballot.

Republicans' 220-215 edge won in November 2024 is today 218-212 with one independent formerly Republican caucusing with his former party, and four vacancies. North Carolina’s 1st Congressional District, one of two redrawn by state lawmakers in October, is considered pivotal to Republicans retaining majority.

Absentee ballots go into the mail Sept. 4 – or two weeks from this coming Friday. North Carolinians will choose a U.S. senator, all 14 members of the U.S. House, and all 170 members of the General Assembly.

House Majority Forward is an advocacy affiliate of House Majority PAC, a super political action committee aligned with Democrats’ leadership in the U.S. House.

Buckhout is bidding to be the first Republican in 71 U.S. House elections – dating to the 1882 cycle – to win the northeastern-most congressional district in North Carolina.

Of 21 cosponsors to the Iowa Republican's bill, Davis is one of 10 Democrats. The only other North Carolinian is freshman Republican Addison McDowell.

Davis has a costly history against border security. In June, he didn’t provide a favorable vote for the $70 billion Secure America Act. Last summer he opposed a bill including funding of border security and immigration even though two weeks prior to his election in 2024 he had pledged support for “comprehensive immigration reform.”

He was also against the Secure the Border Act in 2023, a year in which he also opposed an appropriations bill with $3.5 billion for custody operations, $2 billion for building the wall on the southern border, and $496 million for 22,000 border patrol agents.

When a state senator in 2019, he seldom missed votes but did so on June 24 as lawmakers decided on sheriffs’ cooperation with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. And Monday, immigration wasn’t on Davis’ platform of his campaign website.

Perhaps even more conflating for voters is the endorsement he’s accepted from U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass. She’s promoted decriminalizing illegal border crossings in addition to supporting the Democratic Socialists of America.

“Don Davis can act like a moderate all he wants,” said Buckhout, the retired Army colonel speaking of the retired 1st lieutenant from the Air Force. “But endorsement like this show just who he is beholden to in D.C. When the radical left comes calling, eastern North Carolina cannot trust him to deliver the results we deserve.”

The legislation on Saturday was reported favorably by the Committee on Homeland Security and placed on the Union Calendar. This means it is eligible for consideration to the House floor.

The acronym is Contraband Awareness Technology Catches Harmful Fentanyl Act.

A summary says in part, the “bill establishes a pilot program for improving the inspection of conveyances or modes of transportation at land ports of entry along U.S. borders to detect contraband, illegal drugs, illegal weapons, human smuggling, and threats. Specifically, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Innovation Team must test technology in at least one of the categories of artificial intelligence, machine learning, high-performance computing, quantum information sciences, or other emerging technologies. The team must also test and collect data regarding at least five types of enhancements to nonintrusive inspection technology (e.g., X-ray machines) able to be deployed at land ports of entry.”