Jan. 6 rioter now US House candidate
Evans highlights prison time in W.Va. primary
CHARLESTON, W.Va. – On a college campus near the Kanawha River, dozens of residents, some wearing “Make America Great Again” shirts, waited to see a film portraying Michael Flynn, a key figure in the effort to overturn the 2020 election, as a hero unjustly persecuted by the “deep state.”
It was less than a week before Tuesday’s primary election in West Virginia, and the screening highlighted Flynn’s endorsement of Republican Derrick Evans, who is running for the U.S. House on his own story of persecution.
Evans, 39, served three months in prison after joining fellow pro-Trump protesters who invaded the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. He yelled, “We’re in! Derrick Evans is in the Capitol!” as he livestreamed crowds trying to stop Congress from certifying the election of President Joe Biden.
At the time, Evans was a freshly elected state lawmaker. He apologized and resigned. But now he has proudly refashioned himself as a “J6 political prisoner,” presenting his conviction as the ultimate MAGA credential in hopes of winning the GOP primary in the onceblue coal state turned reliably red.
Jan. 6 cut a new dividing line through American politics. Evans, a real estate investor, is among dozens of people who participated in the riot in some capacity and have sought election to everything from school boards to Congress – including former President Donald Trump. These candidates count on an electorate that sees the insurrection in the same light.
“When they find out that I’m the elected guy who got arrested for Jan. 6, they shake my hand and they thank me and tell me they’re gonna vote for me,” Evans told USA TODAY.
Darlene Rose, who attended the screening, said she was drawn to Evans by what she views as an unfair sentence that strengthened his political resolve.
“They put him in jail for no reason whatsoever,” she said.
Whether that message resonates widely enough in District 1 to topple incumbent Carol Miller – herself a proTrump Republican, among the 147 in Congress to vote against certifying the 2020 election – is an open question.
Jim Umberger, 74, a Democratic candidate for District 1, wound his pickup down a road dotted with closed churches and abandoned homes. The Vietnam veteran was knocking on doors of registered Democrats – a lonely job.
Soon Umberger was talking to a fellow retiree through a screen door on a porch fitted with security cameras. She said she installed them to ward off thieves in a state that is suffering one of the nation’s worst drug epidemics.
Her top concerns were battling addiction and adding jobs, she said. As for Evans? That’s a no, she said. Jan. 6 made her sick.
“I’m ex-military; I hold the belief that this is the greatest place going. And to see that, I was just appalled,” she said.
In his truck, Umberger said the prospect of running in the general election against Evans initially appealed to him, since his role in Jan. 6 “may be a bridge too far for a lot of people.” But he worries that Republicans who downplay the riot have helped change such views.
In January, a USA TODAY/Suffolk Poll showed sympathy for the rioters has increased among the voting public. The percentage of people calling rioters “criminals” dropped from 70% two weeks after the attack to 48%. Nearly one-third said the convictions and sentences for hundreds of people were inappropriate and should be overturned.
“What I think has changed is that those people who really believe that the insurrectionists were saving the country and that the election had been stolen are now given a newfound legitimacy because of the changing verbiage that’s coming from Trump and other supporters,” said Marybeth Beller, a political science professor at Marshall University.
In October, a WV Statewide News Poll showed Evans was making gains, rising from 38% to 44% in three months, while Miller fell from 62% to 56% support. And Evans’ fundraising isn’t too far behind: As of April 24, election filings showed he had raised $781,505 compared with Miller’s $977,031.
In emailed answers to questions, Miller said voters are more concerned about inflation and issues like election security and illegal immigration. Asked what she thinks about Evans’ participation in Jan. 6, she responded, “I don’t think about him at all.”
In Charleston, voters cited concerns about inflation, coal’s decline and border security to USA TODAY. One woman complained of having to choose between Democratic “sheep” and Republicans who “drank the MAGA Kool-Aid.”
Retiree Ken Sullivan, a Democrat, said he worried about threats to democracy. He said of Evans, “I can’t imagine a guy with that reputation” would prevail. If he did, could he even serve? Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, which has worked to challenge Trump’s appearance on primary ballots based on Jan. 6, has argued that because Evans is a felon on supervised release, he would be disqualified from holding office under a section of the 14th Amendment.
It applies to people who previously served in federal, state or local office and took an oath to uphold the Constitution and then participated in an insurrection, according to UCLA law professor Rick Hasen. Such an oath is required of the state office Evans briefly held.
But it would be up to Congress to enforce, Hasen said, and it’s not clear if members would need to pass a statute or simply refuse to seat a representative they believe is disqualified.
Sam Workman, director of the Institute for Policy Research and Public Affairs at West Virginia University, said any challenge attempt would likely wind up before the Supreme Court, if it made it that far – he doubts a majorityRepublican House would attempt to enforce the amendment.
A few days before the primary, Evans predicted he would prevail in any battle to block him if elected. Besides, he said, “Our rights do not come from the government, our rights come from God, our creator.
“It wasn’t until the illegitimate Biden regime and the weaponized deep state came to my house, and ripped me away from my family and drug me to the middle of the swamp, that I looked around and said, ‘I’m gonna have to fight my way back out.’ ”
He added, “If I win the election, oh boy, we’re gonna have some fun.”