One man was a Capitol Police officer. The other erupted in riots on January 6th. They are both running for Congress

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — For Derrick Evans, being part of the crowd that stormed the U.S. Capitol wasn’t enough. The former West Virginia lawmaker wants to make his path to the halls of Congress permanent.

On the other side of the metal barricades that day, Police Officer Harry Dunn couldn’t stand what he saw as he defended the Capitol and its residents from rioters on January 6, 2021. Ultimately, the Maryland resident watched as the lawmakers he protected voted to acquit former President Donald Trump and deny the violence and trauma that led to the deaths of some of his counterparts.

On Tuesday, Evans and Dunn will run for seats in the U.S. House of Representatives in the primaries in their respective states. They go into the election with wildly different interpretations of the events that day, and their performance in Tuesday’s primaries in West Virginia and Maryland could provide an indication of whether voters’ views on the attack and its significance are changing over time has changed.

For an entire afternoon, rioters terrorized the Capitol with pipes, bats and bear spray. They used flagpoles as weapons, brutally beat police officers, chanted they wanted to hang Vice President Mike Pence, broke through glass and stormed doors as lawmakers frantically evacuated. A Georgia man bragged about “feeding” a police officer to the crowd. More than 100 police officers were injured, many beaten and bleeding. At least nine people who were there died during and after the riots, including a female rioter who was shot by police.

More than 1,350 people have been charged with federal crimes related to the Capitol insurrection. Over 850 of them were convicted – around two thirds received prison sentences ranging from a few days to 22 years.

The two candidacies “symbolize a shift by both major parties in their commitment to law and order,” said Timothy Naftali, a senior researcher at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs.

It’s remarkable, Naftali said, that on the same day a former police officer could become a Democratic candidate, while Republicans could choose Evans “an unrepentant felon” who “proudly flaunts the fact that on January 6th he won against.” violated the law.”

“This is a split screen that maybe you couldn’t have imagined 15 years ago,” he said.

While Evans is considered a longshot to unseat an incumbent and lacks the fundraising advantage that Dunn enjoys in Maryland, their candidacies at least raise the possibility that they will serve together while sharing starkly different views on the violence and destruction represented by Jan. 6. But even if Dunn wins and Evans loses, he would be serving alongside dozens of Republicans who now view the defendants as “hostages.”

Dunn, a 40-year-old Democrat, resigned from the Capitol Police last December after more than 15 years of service. He was four years short of pension entitlement.

“I am running for Congress because the forces that drove this violent attack on January 6 are still at work in our country today, and as a patriotic American, I believe it is my duty to defend our democracy.” said Dunn.

According to his latest campaign finance report from the Federal Election Commission, Dunn leads all candidates by a wide margin in fundraising in the race for Maryland’s 3rd District. He has raised $4.6 million and has a cash balance of $714,000.

Evans, a 39-year-old Republican and avid Trump supporter, describes himself as the only elected official who “had the courage” to get behind efforts to temporarily halt the certification of President Joe Biden’s 2020 election victory . He livestreamed himself on Facebook, cheering on what he called a “revolution.”

Evans was arrested two days after the riot and resigned his seat in the West Virginia House of Delegates a month before the 2021 legislative session. He pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge and served three months in prison. At the sentencing hearing, Evans apologized for his actions, but as he left prison he made a U-turn. He began portraying himself as a victim of a politically motivated prosecution.

Evans once called himself a Democrat and finished sixth out of seven candidates in a 2016 state House of Representatives primary. He then switched to the Libertarian Party in the general election, finishing last among five candidates.

Evans is running against West Virginia’s 1st Congressional District Rep. Carol Miller, also a major Trump supporter. In 2022, Miller received 66% of the vote in a five-candidate GOP primary en route to winning her third term in Congress.

Miller focuses on her own accomplishments and recommendations, not criticism of Evans or his status as a Jan. 6 defendant.

“I don’t think about him at all,” she said.

Dunn is among nearly two dozen Democrats running in Maryland’s 3rd Congressional District, where incumbent Democrat John Sarbanes is not seeking re-election. The heavily Democratic jurisdiction stretches between Baltimore and the nation’s capital.

Trump and New York Rep. Elise Stefanik have called the defendants jailed on Jan. 6 “hostages,” reflecting a changing tone among some conservatives regarding the violent attempt to overturn the election results. Evans wrote a book in 2023 called “Political Prisoner: The Untold Story of January 6th.”

“I think it kind of fits with the general theme of what is seen as accepted political behavior among some Republicans in the 2020s, which probably wouldn’t have been the case 10 to 20 years ago,” said Scott Crichlow, associate professor of political science at Washington Post West Virginia University. “In particular, I think it fits within Derrick Evans’ general range of behavior. “But that too, at least among some Republicans, seems to fit more and more with what you want to see and say from candidates today.”

Later this month, another defendant convicted on Jan. 6, construction manager Chuck Hand, is running for a Republican primary in the U.S. House of Representatives in the 2nd District in southwest Georgia. Hand will face three other Republicans on May 21 for the right to run against longtime Democratic incumbent Sanford Bishop. Hand and his wife, Mandy Robinson-Hand, were convicted of parading and picketing in front of the Capitol. Both were sentenced to 20 days in federal prison.

Both Hand and Evans repeat Trump’s false claims that the 2020 election was stolen.

Dunn is repulsed by this rhetoric.

“I will not stand idly by as Donald Trump and his MAGA allies in Congress try to tear our country apart,” he said, referring to Trump’s “Make America Great Again” slogan.

It remains to be seen how legitimate the rioters’ candidacies are. None of those seeking public office have so far found much favor with voters.

In New Hampshire, Capitol riot defendant Jason Riddle plans to run in a crowded GOP primary for the state’s 2nd District U.S. House seat. The deadline for candidates to apply for the September 10 primary is early June. Incumbent Democratic Rep. Annie Kuster announced in March that she would not seek a seventh term. Riddle was sentenced to 90 days in prison for taking wine from a lawmaker’s liquor cabinet and stealing a Senate procedure book that he later sold.

In Arizona, Jacob Chansley, the spear-carrying rioter whose horned fur hat, bare torso and face paint made him one of the insurrection’s most recognizable figures, served about 27 months of a 41-month sentence. He hoped to run as a Libertarian for Arizona’s 8th Congressional District seat, but missed the deadline to submit the required petition signatures to place his name on the ballot.

Tuesday’s primaries in Maryland and West Virginia will provide a more tangible test.

“On the one hand, Evans sees it as something to be proud of. Dunn sees it as something that should never happen again,” Crichlow said. “And in that way, these two campaigns capture really fundamentally different perspectives on the last few years in politics and what politics will look like in the future.”