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Evans, a Seattle native, became governor in 1964, defeating two-term Gov. Albert Rosellini, a Democrat. In the Washington House, Evans had represented the 43rd District in King County and served as the Republican floor leader.
During Evans’ time as governor, 1965 to 1977, Washington established the state community college system. He also bucked popular opinion at the time and welcomed Vietnamese refugees while other states, including California, were unwelcoming in the aftermath of the Vietnam War.
Gov. Evans was handily reelected twice, including defeating Rosellini again in 1972. While in office he was suggested as a possible running mate for both Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford. Evans was governor until 1977, after deciding not to run again. He became president of Evergreen, a four-year public college founded while he was governor.
However, he was called back into the political sphere by Spellman, first on the Northwest Power and Conservation Council and then in the Senate. During his time in the nation’s capital, he and Washington’s other senator, Democrat Brock Adams, pushed President Ronald Reagan to sign off on adding 1.7 million acres of Washington wildland to the National Parks system, including more than 875,000 acres in the Olympic National Park, now known as the Daniel J. Evans Wilderness. He decided not to run for reelection to the Senate in 1988, decrying the bureaucracy and politics that prevented decisions from being made.
Evans also has said in the past that Washington’s experience with the Washington Public Power Supply System, or WPPSS (pronounced “whoops”), influenced his time on the power planning council.
Throughout the 1950s through 1970s, Washington had tried to increase its power grid with five new nuclear power plants. Planning started in the late 1950s but delays, construction costs and rising interest rates through the 1960s and 1970s led to higher-than-planned expenses, as well as a growing mistrust of nuclear energy, eventually leading to the largest municipal bond default in history in 1982.
Congress created the Council in 1980 to help guide the development of hydroelectric power on the Columbia River and balance the region’s power needs with environmental considerations, as interest in developing hydropower as an alternative to nuclear power was growing.