Lane Allen Evans was an American attorney and politician who served as a Democratic member of the United States House of Representatives from 1983 until 2007, representing the 17th District of Illinois.
17 Facts About Lane Evans
2.
Lane Evans was born in 1951 in Rock Island, Illinois, and attended Alleman High School and Augustana College there.
3.
Lane Evans served in the United States Marine Corps during the Vietnam War, stationed in Okinawa.
4.
In 1982, Lane Evans ran for and won the Democratic nomination for Illinois's 17th congressional district, which included most of Illinois' share of the Quad Cities area.
5.
Lane Evans got a significant boost when 16-year incumbent Tom Railsback was defeated for renomination by the more conservative Republican, State Senator Kenneth McMillan.
6.
Lane Evans earned the highest opposition to President Reagan's agenda of any congress member during his first congressional session and then handily defeated McMillan in a 1984 rematch.
7.
In 1994, Republicans retook the House, yet Lane Evans held his seat and won by nine points over a little-known Republican, Jim Anderson, who spent almost no money.
8.
Presidential candidate Bill Clinton carried the district by a healthy 30,000 votes, and Lane Evans defeated Baker by 11,000 votes.
9.
Lane Evans is credited with passage of the Agent Orange Act of 1991 which he sponsored.
10.
Lane Evans was instrumental in the election of Barack Obama during the 2004 United States Senate election in Illinois.
11.
Lane Evans was one of 31 Democrats in the House of Representatives to vote to reject Ohio's 20 electoral votes in the 2004 Presidential Election, despite Republican President George Bush winning the state by 118,457 votes.
12.
In 2019 his biography "Guts: The Lane Evans Story" was published by Strong Arm Press, authored by Devin Hansen.
13.
The FEC contended that the Lane Evans Committee created the Victory Fund during the 1998 election cycle in order to assist with the Congressman's reelection campaign.
14.
Lane Evans won the Democratic primary in 2006 and was poised for a rematch against Zinga.
15.
On March 28,2006 Lane Evans announced that he would not stand for a 13th term in November 2006.
16.
Lane Evans made a brief return to Washington in June 2006.
17.
On November 5,2014, Lane Evans died at the age of 63 in a nursing home in East Moline, Illinois, from complications brought on by Parkinson's disease.