Jean Evans has finished her tenure as executive director of the Missouri Republican Party.
After less than two years in the leadership role, Evans announced her departure on social media Thursday. She noted it’s “not only the last day of 2020” but her final day as the executive director.
Evans, a former state representative, said she has a “couple of things [she’s] working on” but for now is focused on business consulting, a job that allows her to work with younger companies on bringing products to market, she said.
Evans pointed to the passage of Amendment 3 earlier this year as one of her most rewarding moments as executive director of the party. She said she personally worked on getting the ballot measure across the finish line through all stages of the process — from convincing lawmakers to bring it to the floor to overseeing grassroots efforts contacting voters. And the party did it all with a very small budget, she said.
When all was said and done, more than 1.3 million Missourians voted in favor of the ballot measure changing the state’s redistricting process again.
“When we won Amendment 3, we understood the lasting impact that it has and will continue to have long after we’ve moved on to other jobs,” Evans told The Missouri Times. “I think it really speaks to the power of the grassroots, and we also ran this campaign on such a tight budget.”
Evans was first elected to the House in 2016 where she served until joining the party as the executive director in February 2019, working alongside chairwoman Kay Hoflander. In the House, she focused on prohibiting the shackling of pregnante inmates during labor and setting the minimum age of marriage.
She is a former real estate agent, investor, and volleyball coach and officiant.
The Missouri GOP will hold its elections for the next chairman at the end of January. It will be up to the new chair to determine who will serve as the next executive director of the party, Evans said.
Earlier this month, Gov. Mike Parson recommended Nick Myers to serve as the next GOP chair along with LeAnn Green as vice chair.
Lauren Gepford resigned as the executive director of the Missouri Democratic Party in mid-November. The party said it was “talent scouting” to find a replacement in an email to supporters on Dec. 31.
Kaitlyn Schallhorn was the editor in chief of The Missouri Times from 2020-2022. She joined the newspaper in early 2019 after working as a reporter for Fox News in New York City.
Throughout her career, Kaitlyn has covered political campaigns across the U.S., including the 2016 presidential election, and humanitarian aid efforts in Africa and the Middle East.
She is a native of Missouri who studied journalism at Winthrop University in South Carolina. She is also an alumna of the National Journalism Center in Washington, D.C.
Contact Kaitlyn at kaitlyn@themissouritimes.com.
