Jack Davis (industrialist)

John R. Davis Jr. (March 1, 1933 – January 23, 2023) was an American industrialist, perennial candidate, and critic of free trade from Newstead, New York. Between 2004 and 2011, Davis ran four times for the U.S. House of Representatives in New York's 26th congressional district in Western New York. His campaigns were primarily motivated by his opposition to free trade policies, outsourcing, and the decline of manufacturing in the United States.

Davis was the owner of I Squared R, a silicon carbide heating elements manufacturer that he founded in 1964.

Although he was a lifelong Republican, he left the party in 2003 over disagreements on trade policy and ran for Congress as a self-funded candidate in the Democratic Party. He won the Democratic nomination in 2004 and 2006, when he came close to unseating Republican incumbent Tom Reynolds. In 2008, he lost the Democratic primary and supported Republican nominee and eventual representative-elect Chris Lee. After Lee's resignation in 2011, Davis ran in the special election to succeed him. After initially running as a Republican, he entered the general election as a candidate on the Tea Party ticket, playing the role of a spoiler candidate against Republican nominee Jane Corwin.

He was also known as the plaintiff in Davis v. FEC, a successful 2006 lawsuit against the Federal Election Commission, challenging the constitutionality of the so-called "millionaire's amendment" to the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002. The Supreme Court of the United States, with Samuel Alito writing for the 5–4 majority, ruled in favor of Davis, striking down the amendment as a violation of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution for fundamentally restricting the rights of a candidate to self-finance their campaign.