Jared Evans currently serves as Senior Policy Counsel with the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. (LDF), the nation’s oldest and foremost civil rights law organization. Jared’s practice area at LDF is focused on political participation, with a particular emphasis on voting rights and redistricting, and has served as LDF’s census coordinator since 2019. During the post-2020 Census redistricting cycle—the first in decades with severely weakened legal protections—Jared led the planning and strategy of challenges to Louisiana’s congressional and state legislative maps.
In Robinson v. Landry, which argued that Louisiana’s congressional map violated Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 for failing to create two opportunities for minority voters to elect their preferred candidate to Congress, Jared led the civil rights and racial justice coalition, a group of 16 human and civil rights organization. The coalition’s efforts resulted in the construction of a robust and comprehensive record of racial discrimination at every step of the legislative process throughout the years-long litigation. Jared also led the coalition’s efforts in successfully pressuring Governor John Bel Edwards to veto the congressional map passed by the legislature that packed Black voters into just one district. He testified for over 30 non-consecutive hours across four legislative sessions in favor of the map supported by the plaintiffs. In January 2024, the legislature finally passed a map that created two majority-Black congressional districts.
Jared is also counsel in Nairne v. Landry, the challenge to Louisiana’s State House and Senate maps. In February 2024, the District Court ruled that both maps violated Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act. He also led the civil rights and racial justice coalition in advocating for greater minority representation on all governmental and legislative bodies, including the Louisiana Supreme Court, the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education, and the Public Service Commission.
Prior to joining LDF, Jared held legislative and policy positions with the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries, the Louisiana House of Representatives, and served in the offices of former U.S. Senator Mary Landrieu, and former Louisiana State Representative and Senator Rick Gallot.
Jared is a magna cum laude graduate of Grambling State University and holds law degrees from Southern University Law Center and the George Washington University School of Law. He is a member of the National Bar Association, the Washington Bar Association, Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Inc., and St. Augustine Catholic Church. He also serves as an Adjunct Professor at Southern University Law Center and is licensed to practice law in all courts in Louisiana and the District of Columbia.
