[9] He then ran for the U.S. Congress seat in his home district, NY-26, in 2004, 2006 and 2008 as a self-funded candidate, pouring in millions of his own funds and coming close to beating the incumbent Republican Thomas Reynolds in 2006.

[9] He is also known for filing a successful lawsuit against the Federal Election Commission in 2006, claiming that the so-called "millionaire's amendment" to McCain-Feingold Act was unconstitutional.

[3] He said the free trade policies have been pushed by multinational corporations and big box stores such as Walmart who effectively have purchased the White House and the U.S.

[3] In 2004, Davis officially entered politics, running as a Democrat for the U.S. Congress from the 26th District of New York against incumbent Republican Representative Tom Reynolds, who was considered unbeatable.

Davis doubled his original financial commitment to the race, pouring a total of $1.2 million of personal money into his campaign.

Many cite the amount spent by Davis as compared to Reynolds' prior challenger as the primary factor for the change.

Some observers attributed the narrowed margin of victory to an undercurrent of resentment in the working-class areas of the 26th district over economic decline and a lack of manufacturing sector jobs.

Davis believed that free-trade allowed low-wage nations, such as China to compete unfairly with American-produced manufactured goods and agricultural crops.

Davis believed that this would be a popular idea in his native Upstate New York, which contained many struggling farms and factories.

Although Republicans accused him of using the party merely as a springboard for a 2006 rematch against Reynolds, Davis sponsored more than a dozen candidates for public office in races across Western New York.

In one incident, an Erie County legislator sought an FBI investigation over last-minute automated phone calls (robocalls] that had been made from Davis's campaign headquarters.

He appeared on three ballot lines and votes from all three nominating parties counted towards Davis' total under New York's electoral fusion rule.

With the Mark Foley scandal in full swing, pundits re-evaluated the odds of Davis winning against Reynolds.

He began as the odds-on favorite to win the Democratic Party nomination[9] but he faced stiff competition from Iraq War veteran and teacher Jon Powers.

The U.S. Supreme Court, with Justice Alito writing for the 5–4 majority, struck down parts of the act as violating the First Amendment for fundamentally restricting the right of a self-financing candidate to spend his or her own money in a preferred way.

[23] A GOP county chair told The Buffalo News that Davis had disqualified himself by expressing views that were contrary to typical Republican positions.

Finally, Davis briefly, but unsuccessfully courted the Democrats for their nomination, then decided to run on a newly created independent line, under the name "Tea," sending out paid campaign workers to collect the 3,500 required signatures for a ballot listing (Davis's campaign workers collected over 12,000 signatures in total).

[24] Davis' main issue is his opposition to free-trade policies and agreements which he believes have allowed low-wage nations, such as the People's Republic of China, to compete unfairly with American-produced manufactured goods and agricultural crops.

[5][34] The video clip was circulated by local and national Republican organizations[35] and prompted bipartisan criticism of both Davis and Mallia.

[40] Roll Call also said that outside funds coming from both liberal and conservative groups had "turned the Buffalo and Rochester airwaves into a steady stream of campaign ads.