Interview with Mike Davis
Mike Davis is a lawyer and the founder of the Article III Project.
Costco Conservative
Contents
Max Raskin: I think of you as a total political junkie, and I know you consume a lot of news — how do you actually get information?
Mike Davis: I do not watch the news; I do not go read newspapers. I get my news from people texting me and from X.
MR: And who do you think is a must follow on X?
MD: I really like Mollie Hemingway, I like the people at The Federalist. Julie Kelly, Margot Cleveland. Will Chamberlain and Josh Hammer on the Article III Project have fantastic content.
MR: Do you have any hobbies outside politics?
MD: I ski quite a bit because I spend my time between Colorado and Washington, D.C.
MR: Where's your favorite mountain in America?
MD: Probably Vail.
MR: What’s your favorite run there?
MD: It depends. I'm 47 years old so I'm not nearly as courageous as I used to be. I don't do double diamonds at all anymore. I'll do the black diamonds when there's good sunlight and fresh powder. Otherwise, I just like blue groomers, but I'm not looking to set any records. It's good exercise, it's good to clear my head.
I love Blue Sky Basin on the back side of Vail because it's just beautiful and you can go fast down the blues and blacks, and if you go during the week, it's not crowded.
MR: Are you a gearhead at all? Are you particular about what kind of skis you have?
MD: I have nice stuff, but I have no idea what it is. I go to the fancy places and then they just tell me what to get.
MR: Are you particular about the guns you buy or the clothes you wear?
MD: I like H&K for my handgun. I have an HK45, I have several Glock 43s that I carry in DC and Denver and up in the mountains. I like to buy good quality stuff, but I'm not materialistic at all…I'm not fancy at all.
I buy my clothes at Costco for the most part because I'm such a dork. I'll buy my suits and my shirts at Brooks Brothers. They're not tailored but somehow my fat ass can still fit into the off-the-rack Brooks Brothers suits. My friends have told me they won’t go to the bars with me the way I dress because it's so bad…because I wear Costco clothes and I love Costco clothes. I buy Costco socks and underwear.
MR: What's your favorite thing to buy from Costco?
MD: Whatever impulse buy. Something I absolutely don't need, like a power washer.
MR: What was your last impulse buy at Costco?
MD: Every time I go it's ridiculous. I'll go in to get paper towels and I'll end up spending $2,000 on shit I'll never need. I don't cook but I’ve convinced myself I'm going to cook, and so I bought all those KitchenAid blenders. Each one of my houses has a KitchenAid blender that's never been used.
MR: Where’s your favorite places to order food from in DC and Denver?
MD: I don't like to order food to my house. I like to go sit in restaurants. I'll either go with friends or family, or I am very content just sitting at a restaurant or bar by myself and catching up on the news. I am very much a loner, and I enjoy being alone, so it doesn't bother me at all.
MR: Is text the primary way you communicate with people?
MD: No, I fight with them on Twitter as well.
I have a very good network of friends and family, and they drag me out to do things. I'm happy to pretend I like being social, but I am very content in my house up in the mountains alone. It's wonderful.
MR: And what's your way of decompressing from all the politics?
MD: Skiing is a big way I do it. That's really about the only way I do it.
MR: What do you do in the summer?
MD: I'll go mountain biking, kayaking, hiking.
MR: Do you take your phone when you hike?
MD: I do. I take my phone and my gun just in case.
Clerks
MR: When you clerked on the Supreme Court you were probably older than everyone else.
MD: I was an elderly law clerk, I think I was 39 or 40 at the time.
MR: Were you social with the other clerks or did you do your own thing?
MD: The younger clerks were very friendly to us from all the chambers, including the liberal chambers. Everyone got along.
The Supreme Court really is like a little family. You'll have your fights among your siblings but everyone's very smart, professional and gets along. They probably thought it was weird that Justice Gorsuch's first set of clerks were all very elderly. Jameel Jaffer was older than I am, so I wasn't the oldest. We had Janie Nitze and Matt Owen. We were an old bunch, but Janie and Matt had clerked before, and Jaffer clerked for Gorsuch with me on the 10th Circuit.
I actually think judges should hire older law clerks because if you go straight through undergrad, straight through law school, and right to a clerkship, what the hell do you know about anything? What kind of judgment do you have? You could be a really smart researcher and writer on the law, but you don't have judgment. You get judgment from life experience.
Fighting Weight
MR: Do you nap during the day?
MD: No.
MR: What do you eat during the day?
MD: I don't cook. I don't know how to cook. I'm a terrible cook.
I go to restaurants for every meal and it's pathetic but that's just what I do.
MR: Do you snack during the day?
MD: Not really.
MR: I just saw you were drinking seltzer.
MD: I drink SodaStream.
MR: And you drink a lot of it?
MD: I do.
MR: How many bottles do you think you go through a day?
MD: Probably three.
MR: That's fantastic. I think everyone's dehydrated.
MD: Yeah, I'm very dehydrated all the time.
MR: What do you do for exercise?
MD: I've gotten totally fat. I'm as fat now as I was when I moved back to Colorado at 29. Colorado is a very fit town, and you get ostracized if you're a fat ass. So I'm like five foot nine and a half and I was 195 pounds. I was a real fat piece of shit. I'm back up to there. What I would do is mostly just eating healthy and Colorado is so conducive to that.
MR: Do you do any of those workout classes or anything?
MD: When I was disciplined, before I stopped caring, I would eat very healthy during the week — low carbs, high fiber, high protein — and then I wouldn't drink during the week. I would run three times a week — nothing long, like 30 minutes to an hour, 5K, 10K — and then I would do other exercise like skiing and hiking. That's how I was able to get down to 160 and keep myself very fit at 160 for several years, and then I stopped doing it. And then my problem is I drink too much red wine during the week because I love it.
Rye and Reds
MR: What's your favorite red wine?
MD: I like Napa Cabs. I'm not that fancy about it, but I like Napa Cabs. Do I drink too much? Probably, but I just don't give a shit. I've told my doctor and my doctor's like, "Well, maybe you should."
MR: You smoke cigars?
MD: I used to when I was younger. I don't like smoking cigars now. My doctor would say, "You're not an alcoholic…" (because, of course, I lied to him about how much I drink) “…but you're going to probably get pre-diabetic soon and you should probably cut back on red wine.”
I just looked at him dead in the eyes and I said, "There's no chance."
MR: I thought you preferred hard liquor.
MD: I like hard liquor. I like whiskey and my favorite whiskey drink is called a Black Manhattan. It has Montenegro Amaro with a big rock and then some sort of rye and it's so good.
MR: Do you have a favorite rye?
MD: I used to drink Templeton Rye before we found out they were a fraud. Templeton Rye was from Iowa, where I'm from. I like good quality whiskey, but it doesn't have to be super high end. It just can't just be rail whiskey.
The Colorado Thing
MR: When judges are trying to impress you with their health and fitness, has anyone ever like dropped and done 15 push-ups in front of you so they could get on a court?
MD: No. I mean Justice Gorsuch for example — he’s 10 years older than I am. He’s very fit and he's a really good skier, so I've never been able to beat him at skiing. He runs, he rows, he's very fit. As for the younger judges, Patrick Bumatay was a co-clerk of mine. He clerked for Judge Tymkovich when I clerked for then-Judge Gorsuch on the 10th Circuit.
MR: I just had lunch with Martin Salvucci who clerked for Judge Tymkovich — May clerked for him also.
MD: Yep — I think Martin's dropped a bunch of weight, hasn't he?
MR: Yeah — I just saw him and he looks really good.
MD: Good.
Bumatay is very fit. Tymkovich is very fit. It’s the Colorado thing. When you go to Colorado, you get indoctrinated into the whole fitness thing — an early to bed, early to rise healthy lifestyle.
MR: Where’s your favorite restaurant in DC?
MD: I like going to local ethnic restaurants. The place I'm starting to like a lot is Union Market in DC. It’s becoming a very cool hip neighborhood. I go to St. Anselm's quite a bit when I just want to go grab a steak and a glass of wine at night. It's a little bit bougie, but I love it.
Nil Sine Numine
MR: What about in Colorado?
MD: There are a lot of great places in Colorado. I seek out the truly ethnic dives…Mexican restaurants that are legit Mexican restaurants with legit green chili. A really good Mexican restaurant is La Loma in downtown Denver. I really like Bastien’s — it's a divey old steakhouse on East Colfax, which is a seedy street in Denver. I like the old Italian restaurants. I like the Asian restaurants. Denver has a very good food scene. They have a bougie food scene, which I don't like. It’s overpriced and you leave the place starving.
MR: Do you want to die in Colorado?
MD: I don't fear death at all.
MR: Sorry, what I mean is where do you want to live permanently?
MD: Colorado. I spend 80% of my time in Colorado, 20% of my time in DC.
MR: Do you have interest moving anywhere else in the country?
MD: Look, I've been all over the world. I’ve been to every state except Hawaii. I've been to 60 countries. I've been all over the country, all over the world, and my favorite place to be is Colorado.
MR: What is it that you like so much about it?
MD: It's just a different vibe. The people are normal there. They think they're Democrat, they think they're liberal, but they're more libertarian.
MR: If someone who knows nothing about you asked for you to describe yourself politically, what would you say?
MD: I'm a right-wing Republican on just about every issue. I'm not libertarian.
I think libertarians are just young, confused potheads who haven't been responsible adults.
I used to be somewhat Chamber of Commerce, more liberal on immigration and trade. I'm not anymore.
MR: Would you rather have public schools teach what you want them to teach, or would you rather not have public schools?
MD: I think public schools are terrible. I think that we should give all K-12 educational dollars directly to the parents. They can send the kids to public schools if they want to. If they want to send their kids to these dogshit, failed government school monopolies.
Family Ties
MR: What’s the last TV show you binge watched?
MD: Oh God — I have not watched TV in years. I used to love watching TV shows. I used to love going to movies. That was a big thing with my dad. We'd go to two or three movies a day.
MR: Wow.
MD: I used to go to every movie that ever came out.
MR: Is your dad still alive?
MD: He is. He's back in Iowa.
MR: Do you talk to him about what you're doing?
MD: Yes — I have a good relationship with my parents and my brother and sister and my nephews and nieces.
MR: Do they get what you're doing?
MD: They didn't before. They used to all be Democrats and I just knew as a kid that something's very fucked up with the Democrat party. My parents worked in poor minority schools in Des Moines. I just thought it’s so fucked up we’re going to trap poor black kids in failed government schools and we're going to say that if you have a father in the home, you don't get welfare. You have crime-ridden schools, intergenerational poverty, and that's what Democrats made happen for decades. There's just something fucked up about it.
Ottomatic
MR: Do you have free time?
MD: I can make free time if I want it, but I enjoy working all the time.
MR: You have to keep track of lots of people — lawyers, judges, politicians, reporters — do you have a system? Do you keep notes in your phones?
MD: No, Otto Heck is my COO. Otto is my brain. He takes care of everything. Otto runs everything in my life. If Otto wanted to rob me blind, he could do it.
MR: If you meet someone at a party and you want to stay in touch?
MD: I tell Otto and he takes care of it. Otto is one of my best friends and he takes care of everything. Personal, nonprofit, business. He runs my life.
MR: Are you religious?
MD: I'm Catholic. Look, I went to 13 years of Catholic school and I hated it because I didn't like to be told what to do. I was a pain in the ass. I still am.
I was raised Irish Catholic. I'm still Irish Catholic, but I kind of fell out of faith. I still liked the Catholic tradition and values. So as I'm getting older, I'm coming back to my Catholic faith. I hated being forced to go to church. I did not like to be told what to do as a kid and I still don't.