Don Davis is the Democratic U.S. Representative for North Carolina's 1st Congressional District, a fifth-generation eastern North Carolinian now seeking re-election in 2026 after Republican state lawmakers redrew his district to add more Republican-leaning counties. First elected in 2022 and re-elected narrowly in 2024, Davis has built a reputation as a moderate, bipartisan voice for the rural and coastal communities of eastern North Carolina, serving on the House Agriculture and Armed Services Committees.

Davis was born and raised in Snow Hill, North Carolina, where he worked in the tobacco fields as a young man to help pay for clothes and school supplies. He earned his way into the United States Air Force Academy, graduating in 1994, and served eight years as a commissioned Air Force officer, rising to the rank of captain and coordinating Air Force One and congressional delegation operations at Andrews Air Force Base. He later returned home to teach at East Carolina University, earning a master's degree from Central Michigan University and both a master's and a doctorate from East Carolina University.

Davis's public service began at the local level, where he became the youngest mayor of Snow Hill at age 29 and served seven years. He went on to spend 12 years in the North Carolina State Senate, where he helped pass legislation expanding health coverage, lowering utility rates, funding rural schools, and extending broadband access. Since arriving in Congress in 2023, he has continued that record, working to expand rural broadband, pushing for rural hospital funding, and taking on leadership roles including ranking member of the Agriculture Committee's rural development subcommittee and co-chair of the bipartisan For Country Caucus.