However, despite redistricting and a minor national Democratic comeback, Evans handily defeated Cutler, winning this time by over 20,000 votes. Two years later, Evans won re-election by an even greater margin, receiving over 60 percent of the vote defeating Democrat Joe Johnston. In January 1986, Evans announced he would not seek a fourth term, but would return to Iowa to farm. In all, he served from January 3, 1981 to January 3, 1987. Evans died December 22, 2005, at the age of 81, in Grundy Center, Iowa, and was interred in Rose Hill Cemetery there.