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Evan Jones (Washington)
Evan Jones (independent) ran for election to the U.S. House to represent Washington's 4th Congressional District. He lost in the primary on August 4, 2020.
Jones completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2020. Click here to read the survey answers.
Biography
Jones was born in Bridgeport, Connecticut. He earned his bachelor's degree from Kenyon College in 1982. He also did graduate study at the London School of Economics. His career experience includes helping to establish Tri-Cities Beautiful (tricitiesbeautiful.org).[1]
Elections
2020
See also: Washington's 4th Congressional District election, 2020
General election
General election for U.S. House Washington District 4
Incumbent Dan Newhouse defeated Doug McKinley in the general election for U.S. House Washington District 4 on November 3, 2020.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ |  | Dan Newhouse (R) | 66.2 | 202,108 |
 | Doug McKinley (D) | 33.6 | 102,667 | |
| Other/Write-in votes | 0.2 | 488 | ||
| Total votes: 305,263 | |||
 = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Nonpartisan primary election
Nonpartisan primary for U.S. House Washington District 4
The following candidates ran in the primary for U.S. House Washington District 4 on August 4, 2020.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Dan Newhouse (R) | 57.4 | 101,539 |
| ✔ | | Doug McKinley (D) | 26.2 | 46,471 |
 | Sarena Sloot (R) | 6.7 | 11,823 | |
 | Tracy Wright (R) | 5.1 | 9,088 | |
| Ryan Cooper (L) | 2.3 | 4,080 | ||
 | Evan Jones (Independent) | 2.2 | 3,816 | |
| Other/Write-in votes | 0.1 | 228 | ||
| Total votes: 177,045 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Campaign themes
2020
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
Evan Jones completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2020. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Jones' responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.
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Currently a Learning Consultant & Workplace Training Designer (learn-thrive.com) and a part-time airline crew member. Previously taught high school Civics and American Government and was a Headmaster (Principal) during 20 years as an educator. Also worked previously as an industry issues management executive and served as Director of Communications for the national organization, Keep America Beautiful.
Education
BA-Kenyon College (Ohio) in Sociology. Graduate studies at the London School of Economics (Policy & Planning).
Most Recent Community Service
Founder of Tri-Cities Beautiful (tricitiesbeautiful.org) a local nonprofit focused on volunteer-driven community improvement and neighborhood beautification (launching in Fall 2020).- Ev's sole mission will be to serve as an innovative progress-maker in Washington, D.C. - working outside of the partisan scrum as a tireless coalition-builder and solution-finder.
- Instead of partisan grandstanding on "Cable News Issues", Ev will focus exclusively on developing policies and legislation that can make measurable differences in the everyday life of our communities and businesses.
- With regular, open-access briefings and unbiased citizen-education tools available to all constituents, Ev will empower citizens to make clear-headed judgments (and decisions) on their own regarding key issues of the day that impact their lives and work.
Economic Stimulation:Let's create innovative and accountable public sector efforts to unleash local ingenuity and workplace innovation. More federally funded micro-enterprise financing, shared-resource work-hubs and business startup learning programs in 2021 would be a good start.
Infrastructure: Beginning in January 2021 lets focus on grassroots improvements in roads and freight rail, shared agricultural assets (such as irrigation), Hydropower, Broadband and 5G expansion, and dispersed scientific research capacity (such as PNNL). We can make immediate impacts here in the Northwest.
Job Training/"Career Creation": In 2021 let's work to make adult workplace skill enhancement and professional development learning open to all much as we have provided free public schools for children since the late 1800s
Also:
Disaster Preparedness & Resilience
Path to Citizenship/Border Security.
Citizen-Driven Sustainability
Simplified & Equitable Taxation
Regulation Reform
I always marveled at the knack of the old GIs to be always looking toward, seeking common ground, and avoiding petty squabbles. They seldom fought over who got the credit. I'm sure a lot of that came from their own feelings about surviving war and its horror - and honoring those who didn't come back from their foxholes.
So while we all remember the fallen this Summer, I hope we can also remember the legacies of all who survived combat and other wartime service and yet returned to fight the good fight during peacetime here at home. They were everyday heroes. The gift of their survival, their ongoing dedication to meaningful living and their ongoing service to the community has been a true and lasting memorial to those others who did not come home.
If you listen to the way people talk these days, most of us would probably answer this question in much the same way our nation's founders might have in the 1780s.
So what do we really want?
First and foremost, while doing the actual work of their office, an elected official in an ideal world would be non-partisan. Yes we all have points of view we believe in and prefer. But when it comes to the actual work of government, representatives have to be service-based and progress-oriented if anything of value to communities is ever going to get done.
Secondly, the elected official needs to carefully serve the interests of the communities that sent him or her to office. Why do I need a representative in office more interested in serving party bosses, VIP donors and media pundits than me?
Third: Stop wasting time on things that don't matter in the grand scheme of things. Focus on action over words, progress over politics.
Fourth, there is no way you have the monopoly on wisdom or common sense on any issue that matters to us. So seek out and then be willing to incorporate the best ideas from all sources into your vision. Build bridges instead of burning them. Any issue that is important enough for government to take action on is "all hands on deck".So make sure you listen actively to all perspectives.
Finally...make it your life's work to constantly give us the information we need to make the decisions that matter in our lives. Just give us the opportunity to weigh all the pros and cons and make choices for ourselves as we try and see that our families, businesses and communities prosper. Just give us solid facts and perspectives so we can thrive!
We need leadership that is shrewd, prepared, capable, communicative, and entrepreneurial. We need independent thinkers who give every constituent ready access to federal resources and policy making.
Can the partisan morass that is Congress in 2020 deliver this kind of leadership? Simply: If "regular Joneses" like you and I (whether you are conservative, moderate, or progressive) could transform Congress to make it work for us - what would we do?
Congress must now focus intently on progress, without putting a premium on who gets the credit. It must be service-driven and accomplishment-oriented. Representatives must now think, act, and legislate based on how policy and programs actually impact our workplaces and neighborhoods, not their own political prospects. They must commit focus to action over words, and measured progress over political gamesmanship. They need to use the best ideas from all sources - and actively build bridges toward all perspectives. Most important their chief service must now be to regularly provide constituents with reliable facts and diverse perspectives on key issues of the day, so we can make judgments and decisions that will help our families and businesses to thrive.
It's important that we ask ourselves if our current leaders are serving us in the ingenious ways The Founders had intended.
The House was structured specifically to seek and use the best ideas from all sources - to build bridges between perspectives, regions, cultures and communities. Representatives were meant to regularly give citizens access to solid facts and perspectives so that they could make rational political judgments and life decisions affecting the prosperity of their families or businesses.
I believe it is important that we seek that unique founding vision for Congress in 2020 by seeking to serve as innovative progress-makers - working outside of the partisan scrum as tireless coalition-builders and solution-finders. I think Representatives should provide regular, open-access policy briefings and unbiased citizen-education to constituents (instead of the thinly-veiled campaign propaganda we get now). I think Congress must fully open up the policy making process, and get all of the key information and diverse perspectives on issues out on the table in the open to make sure that data and sense - not campaign donations - drive future decision-making. We need less partisan grandstanding, and more focus on forward momentum no matter who gets the credit. We need focus on the kinds of policies and legislation that actually make differences in our everyday lives.
But as we have navigated through the Coronavirus pandemic, a lot of us have been taking a hard look at the things in our lives - at what is important and what is not, about what matters and what does not, and about what serves us well, and what does not. Government is one of those things many have been looking at lately and asking, "What are we doing here?"
Clearly, we have learned that we do need competent government when we need it. We need leaders who above everything else can be shrewd, prepared, capable, communicative and entrepreneurial. We need open-minded and creative problem solvers. Above all, many are concluding that our representatives have to be progress-focused and accomplishment-oriented in all they do.
Being "good at re-election" is not what most Americans would desire in their political leader skill set. Being "effective at negative campaigning" is not a character trait many of us would wish for our children. Being "slavishly tied to the fortunes of your party instead of the progress of your nation" is hardly a motto to be etched in marble.
The coronavirus pandemic revealed one devastating fact: The quality of the information we get thrown at us daily on key matters by our partisan political leaders, the national press outlets, and even by ranting "know-it-alls" everywhere on the Internet - just plain sucks. And Covid-19 is just one example of where this situation has led to devastating weaknesses in our community-preparedness and in our ability to thrive as a nation. Going forward, Americans need to demand better-quality and less-biased information from all sources so we can begin taking firmer control of the direction of our lives, businesses, and communities.
Let's start with Congress. We don't need perpetual partisan campaigning: We do need open-access through our representatives to information we can all use to make rational political, life and business judgments. Congress must now function as an information-hub for communities. It must provide reliable data and diverse, fact-based perspectives on every matter of importance to constituents so we can decide for ourselves how to thrive through the 2020s.
Information also presents important opportunities in the 2020s.
Note: Ballotpedia reserves the right to edit Candidate Connection survey responses. Any edits made by Ballotpedia will be clearly marked with [brackets] for the public. If the candidate disagrees with an edit, he or she may request the full removal of the survey response from Ballotpedia.org. Ballotpedia does not edit or correct typographical errors unless the candidate's campaign requests it.
See also
2020 Elections
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ Information submitted to Ballotpedia through the Candidate Connection survey on May 26, 2020.
