Don Young is ‘in’ for 2020

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(2-minute read) LONGTIME CAMPAIGN MANAGER RETIRES, NEW TEAM FORMING

Congressman Don Young will be a candidate for U.S. House again in 2020.

His State Director Chad Padgett said this morning that Young’s long-time campaign manager has retired and a new campaign team is in the early stages of organizing. Jerry Hood had run Young’s campaign since 2012.

On March 8, 2019, Young will become the longest serving Republican in the history of the House and Senate. He is serving his 24th term in the House as Alaska’s congressman since 1973. He is the last remaining member of Congress who has been in office since the Nixon Administration. He became the Dean of the House of Representatives on Dec. 5, 2017, after the resignation of John Conyers from Michigan.

Rep. Joseph Gurney Cannon of Illinois served in the House for 46 years to the day, but his service was not continuous. Don Young has served for 45 years, 325 days, as of Jan. 26, 2019.

In the Senate, Sen. Strom Thurmond of South Carolina served 47 years, 5 months and 8 days, but he started his Senate tenure as a Democrat, for his first 10 years in office.

Young moved to Alaska in 1959 and settled in Fort Yukon, above the Arctic Circle. He worked in gold mining, trapping, and construction.  He also captained a tugboat, running a barge operation on the Yukon River. In the winters, he taught at the local Bureau of Indian Affairs elementary school.

Jerry Hood

Hood came to Alaska in 1970 and worked in the broadcast industry before joining the Teamsters Union in 1973, where he was a shop steward, editor of the union’s newsletter, business representative, and executive director of the Teamster’s political action committee, among other roles.

No replacement for Hood has been named, Padgett said.

2 COMMENTS

  1. Your one of the few who omits his age. It’s okay to print it because he’s a guy with an “r” behind his name.

  2. I am glad to hear Don has not decided to give it up yet….My wife and family have voted for him in each of his elections and watched him work with both Democrat and Republican leaderships and manage to be effective for Alaska in both cases but for most of his time he has had something most other house members did not have as he almost always had (2) two US senate votes he could count on. and Don can count on our support and our votes in his next election as well…Good luck Don and thanks for a life time of service to all Alaskans….

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