A tale of two House candidates: Jan. 6 felon and Jan. 6 hero

Settle in for a tale of two candidates for Congress who were on opposite sides during the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. 

Derrick Evans is an unapologetic “J6” felon who forced his way into the Capitol, while former Capitol Police officer Harry Dunn risked his life holding back the MAGA mob. And when the new Congress meets in January 2025 to certify the electoral vote count, they could be sitting on opposite sides of the aisle.  

Dunn retired after a 15-year career with the Capitol Police to enter a crowded Democratic primary field in Maryland’s heavily Democratic 3rd Congressional District. He’s running to fill the seat held by long-time Rep. John Sarbanes, who announced he would not seek reelection.

Evans, who received a three-month sentence on a felony civil disorder charge for his role in the failed insurrection, is mounting a primary challenge from the right to incumbent GOP Rep. Carol Miller in West Virginia’s deeply red 1st District, He describes Miller as “worse than a RINO” and an “undocumented Democrat” in a social media post, even though she endorsed Donald Trump’s presidential campaign last year and objected to certification of some states’ Electoral College votes on that fateful day in January 2021. 

The Maryland and West Virginia primaries both take place on May 14.

Evans, a real estate investor and former high school football coach, gained followers by livestreaming videos as he harassed patients outside of West Virginia’s only abortion clinic in 2018 and 2019. Even though one volunteer escort had to get a restraining order against him, Evans’ anti-abortion activities didn’t stop him from winning a seat in the state Legislature in November 2020. He was sworn into his new office in December.

And on Jan. 6, a helmeted state Del. Evans returned to his roots, livestreaming a video of himself pushing through a door into the Capitol Rotunda—while he provided an enthusiastic commentary.

At one point, as alarms blared, he shouted, “Let’s go! We took it over. We took it over!” Once inside, he declared: “Derrick Evans is in the Capitol.”

This short video from NowThis summarizes Evans’ activities on Jan. 6—and the aftermath. Evans was arrested on Jan. 8 and resigned from the House of Delegates soon after. 

Conversely, in his testimony to the House Jan. 6 Select Committee in June 2021, Dunn described how his experiences that day had left him “completely drained both physically and emotionally.” He was first stationed outside the Capitol, but after the building was breached he was called inside to guard a stairwell below which were injured officers, as well as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office.

And then he described facing a torrent of racial epithets.

”No one had ever—ever—called me a `nigger’ while wearing the uniform of a Capitol Police officer. In the days following the attempted insurrection, other black officers shared with me their own stories of racial abuse on January 6. … Another black officer later told he had been confronted by insurrectionists inside the Capitol, who told him to “Put your gun down and we’ll show you what kind of nigger you really are!’” …

“I sat down on a bench with a friend of mine who is also a black Capitol Police officer, and told him about the racial slurs I had endured. I became very emotional and began yelling ‘How the [expletive] can something like this happen?! Is this America?’’ I began sobbing, and officers came over to console me.”

Dunn’s reaction to bodycam police footage of the attack during a Jan. 6 committee hearing made headlines at the time. 

During his July 2022 sentencing hearing for the felony charge of civil obstruction to which he’d pleaded guilty, Evans was contrite. He told the judge he is a “good person who unfortunately was caught up in a moment.” His approach apparently worked: Evans was facing up to five years in federal prison, but was sentenced to just three months.

But after the sentence was handed down, prosecutors noted in a letter to the judge that Evans was downplaying the violence and destruction on Jan. 6 and making inconsistent statements about his role in the attack. The letter mentioned a radio interview in which Evans was asked whether he had any regrets about Jan. 6. He replied, “I’m never going to regret standing up to tyranny and standing up for people who believe in me.”

Then, on Jan, 6, 2023, the second anniversary of the insurrection, Evans announced he was running for Congress, promising that “Once elected, I will proudly stand with the Freedom Caucus to oppose the globalist, uniparty swamp rats who are attempting to destroy this country.” 

Watch:

But that was just the beginning.

On Halloween, he posted a picture of himself as a “J6 Political Prisoner,” dressed in an orange prison jumpsuit with his wife dressed in a police uniform, on Facebook.

For Christmas, Evans shared and quickly deleted an image showing figurines of Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, former President Barack Obama, and former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi hanging from nooses on a Christmas tree, as a Donald Trump ornament looked on in approval.

So far, Evans has been endorsed by ultra-right extremists Michael Flynn, Roger Stone, and MyPillow founder and Trump devotee Mike Lindell.

Evans’ more recent social media posts have been racist and anti-immigrant. And in a radio interview with right-wing conspiracy theorist Stew Peters, Evans blamed Israel for Jan. 6 and pondered whether Jews writ large “stole the election.”

Visitors to Evans’ campaign website will immediately notice a photo of Evans in a gray hoodie leaving a building with the caption: “J6 PRISONER running for U.S. CONGRESS. Standing U.S. Legislator Arrested and Imprisoned. MEET DERRICK EVANS.”

The convicted felon also tweeted his prison ID in January, with the caption, “Now I’m running for US Congress so I can kick in the front door & expose the corruption in DC.”

The watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington asserts that Evans should have been booted from the ballot under the 14th Amendment, which disqualifies anyone from serving in any federal or state office if they took an “oath … to support the Constitution of the United States” and then “engaged in insurrection … against the Constitution.”

But Evans said he believes that he is eligible to hold public office because he was found guilty of civil disorder and not insurrection.

“The attorney for the West Virginia Secretary of State’s office has already come out and said look, this guy was never charged let alone convicted of insurrection,” Evans said in January.

On Thursday, he proudly shared his mugshot alongside Trump’s. 

Dunn announced his candidacy on the eve of the third anniversary of Jan. 6. NBC News was the first to report on Dunn’s plans.

“Because of Jan. 6 and everything that happened afterwards, it’s clear how much of a threat the extinction of our democracy is — it’s very present right now,” Dunn said in a phone interview Thursday ahead of his announcement.

“I do believe that we’re literally one election cycle away from the extinction of our democracy..”