Davis Ousted in Tennessee

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Rep. David Davis (R-Tenn.) was upset Thursday in a little-noticed Volunteer State primary.

Johnson City Mayor Phil Roe (R), who finished in fourth place in the 2006 GOP primary that Davis won, took this cycle's primary by about 500 votes — or less than 1 percent — according to the Associated Press.

Davis won the 13-way 2006 primary with just 22 percent of the vote. He has established a very low profile on Capitol Hill since coming to Congress.

Roe, a popular OB/GYN and Army veteran, painted himself as a political outsider in the 2006 contest, when he toured the 12-county district on bicycle.

Elsewhere around Tennessee, despite a lot of noise out of her primary challenger, Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R) easily defeated Shelby County Register of Deeds Tom Leatherwood in the southwest Tennessee 7th district.

Although Leatherwood released polling numbers showing that he was gaining on Blackburn, the third-term Congresswoman was ahead 65 percent to 35 percent with 94 percent reporting.