Hanover is my heartbeat, says Tamika Davis
Published:Thursday | August 27, 2020 | 12:20 AMJanet Silvera/Senior Gleaner Writer
WESTERN BUREAU:
The Jamaica Labour Party’s (JLP) Tamika Davis is hoping that a burning desire for change in Hanover Western will propel her to victory come next week when she will battle People’s National Party (PNP) incumbent Ian Hayles.
Encouraged by the phenomenal show of support she received on nomination day, Davis says she has been building on that momentum as she tries to convince electors that she is offering a better option.
“The people of Hanover can expect leadership with integrity, an advocate for all their issues, a person who believes that Western Hanover can grow and realise its true development,” she told The Gleaner recently. “Hanover is my heartbeat, and my genuine love for the parish and its people is the driving force which makes all my goals attainable.”
The constant cry throughout the constituency is for water, roads, and jobs, she said.
“Chronic water shortage is being experienced throughout the parish. Young people have no job opportunities here. There are no skills-training centres, no factories, no housing developments. The congested parish capital offers very little in terms of access to utility companies, commercial banks, etc,” she noted.
Davis became the JLP’s standard-bearer last October after a run-off that saw her amassing 129 votes to businessman Andrew McLeary’s 102.
That contest took place after the JLP General Secretary Dr Horace Chang declared that there was no clear winner in the initial election held a week earlier as none of the four candidates then had secured more than half of the votes.
At that time, McLeary tallied 88 votes, while Davis bagged 86. Former Lucea Mayor Vasca Brown had amassed 20 while businessman Dwayne Clayton had garnered 18.
That hurdle behind her, Davis, an attorney-at-law, said her desire is to create jobs and improve infrastructure in the constituency.
“In my capacity as the caretaker, I have already begun my quest to meet the basic everyday needs of the people of Hanover,” she said.
Hailing from the farming community of Middlesex in the parish, Davis attended the Middlesex Corner Primary School and then Montego Bay High School for Girls in St James before being transferred to Rusea’s High.
After completing her first degree in humanities at The University of the West Indies, she taught English literature, English language, and history for a year at the Frome Technical High in Westmoreland before pursuing her law degree in 2000 and later being called to the Bar in 2005.
She spent the first few years after law school as clerk at the Family Court, serving Hanover, St James, and Westmoreland before going to work as revenue contracts administrator at MBJ Airports Limited then venturing into private practice as an associate at Frater Ennis and Gordon.
She established her own legal practice, The Law Offices of Tamika Y. Davis, in 2010.