One-on-One with Rep. Dwight Evans

“I have no differences when people produce outcomes.”

After previously serving in the Pennsylvania state legislature, Dwight Evans was elected to the United States House of Representatives in 2016. A Democrat, Rep. Evans has been active on issues from criminal justice to education, and he has formed a number of bipartisan coalitions during his time in government to work towards policy goals. He joins Merion West’s editor Erich Prince to discuss his governing philosophy and to chat about issues from charter schools to reducing poverty through economic opportunity. Also, participating in the conversation is author Allen Hornblum, who had worked with then-state representative Evans on various criminal justice initiatives in the 1990’s. This is part one of our conversation.

To get started, Congressman, if you want to say what you were saying about the type of Democrat that you are, “the Democrat that governs”—and what that means in an environment that’s increasingly partisan. What does it mean to be the “Democrat that governs” today?

My name is Dwight Evans, and I represent the third congressional district—in the city of Philadelphia. This is one of eighteen districts in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, coming from the fifth largest state in the nation. And one day there was a constituent asking me the question of what type of Democrat am I, and I said back to the constituent: “I’m the type of Democrat who is of the governing wing,” meaning that I’m very results-oriented. I like to get things done, and I can give you a number of examples of what I mean by that. But let me just talk a little bit about my background.