Representative Richard A. Evans M.D. is a surgeon from Dover-Foxcroft and is the first Democrat in more than 30 years to represent one of the state’s most conservative areas in the Maine House of Representatives. He will be just the fifth Black lawmaker in the 200-year history of Maine.

In the 25 years that he has lived in Piscataquis County, Dr. Evans has seen the struggles of so many who are living in an area of Maine that has one of the highest rates of poverty in the state, an area not unlike the area that he lived in and experienced growing up in an impoverished area of Houston, Texas— from low paying jobs, inadequate health care, to limited educational opportunities and fading hope. He often sees his patients push aside their health to put food on the table or pay heating bills. He feels the pandemic has put a spotlight on the inequalities across our state. He ran on making health care more affordable, helping our neediest people, and bridging political divides.

Rusty Willette provides a bit of Dr. Evans’ history in a letter to the editor. “Through the Reserved Officer Training Program (ROTC), Dr. Evans graduated from Howard University in Washington D.C. with a degree in microbiology, and later from Jefferson Medical College of Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia, followed up by a five year residency in general surgery. He thereafter entered active military duty with his first assignment as Chief of Hospital Services at Loring Air Force Base in Limestone where he fell in love with the State of Maine, eventually finding his way to Dover-Foxcroft where he and his wife Bonnie reside and where he established a private solo general surgery practice.”

Adding to this, he is a past President of the Maine Medical Association (MMA) and currently serves as Maine’s Senior Delegate to the American Medical Association (AMA). For the past 15 years, Dr. Evans has served as the Moderator of the General Assembly of the MMA in addition to being the Editor of Maine Medicine, a quarterly publication by the MMA. Regionally and nationally, Dr. Evans served as Chair of the New England Delegation to the AMA and as a member of the Steering Committee of the national Organization of State Medical Association Presidents. He was selected by the Speaker of the House of Delegates of the AMA to serve on the AMA Compensation Committee, recently completing this appointment as Chair of the Committee. Dr. Evans, appointed by the Speaker of the House of the AMA, is currently serving as one of a 13 member AMA National Task Force on Election Reform. He and his wife Bonny have a blended family of one son, two daughters, 7 granddaughters, and one grandson.