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Democrat Dwight Evans reelected to U.S. House in Pa.’s Third District

Results of third congressional district race.

U. S. Rep. Dwight Evans speaks at a protest against the nomination of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh in August. MICHAEL BRYANT / Staff Photographer
U. S. Rep. Dwight Evans speaks at a protest against the nomination of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh in August. MICHAEL BRYANT / Staff PhotographerRead moreMICHAEL BRYANT/ Staff Photographer

Democratic Rep. Dwight Evans won reelection to the U.S. House in Pennsylvania's Third District Tuesday, easily turning aside an underfunded challenge from Republican Bryan Leib in a district ranked as one of the bluest in the nation.

Evans, 64, earned a second term representing the district, which takes in part of Center City and consists mostly of neighborhoods in North, West and Northwest Philadelphia. A longtime former member of the state House, Evans was first elected to the seat in 2016, replacing former Rep. Chaka Fattah (D.,Pa.), who was convicted that year on federal corruption charges.

"The real fundamental question we've really got to ask ourselves is, what type of a society do we want?" Evans said in a recent campaign stop, criticizing the GOP tax cuts for helping corporations and the wealthy while driving up the deficit and leaving less room for needed domestic programs.

Ignored by the national elements of his party, Leib, 33, called out CNN anchor Jake Tapper, a Philadelphia native, on Twitter in mid-October, trying to get some coverage. On the trail, the businessman and leader of the city Young Republicans argued that one-party Democratic rule had not helped the city.

"I'm a realist. I realize this would be the upset of the nation, right?" Leib said in an interview with news website Billy Penn in October. "But I'm still out here working hard to connect with people."

An estimated 56 percent of the district's population is African American, according to the data journalism website FiveThirtyEight. Two years ago, Hillary Clinton took 91 percent of the vote in the precincts that now comprise the newly redrawn Third.