On March 6, 1973, Congressman Don Young became Alaska’s lone congressman, a position he has held ever since. He marked the 49th anniversary of that day by saying that being congressman for Alaska has been an honor of a lifetime.
Young was re-elected to the 117th Congress in 2020 to serve his 25th term as Alaska’s only representative to the United States House of Representatives. First sworn in as a freshman to the 93rd Congress after winning a special election on March 6, 1973, Young is today the Dean of the House and the longest serving member of the current Congress. He is running to serve his 26th term, and is challenged by Nick Begich III, the grandson of the man who preceded Young.
Young was born in California on June 9, 1933 and moved to Alaska before statehood. He settled in Fort Yukon, where he taught school and ran a tug and barge operation on the Yukon River.
Young entered a life of public service in 1964 when he was elected mayor of Fort Yukon. Two years later, his district elected him to the State Legislature in Juneau, where he served in the State House from 1966 to 1970, and later in the State Senate from 1970 to 1973. He ran for U.S. House and lost to Congressman Nick Begich I, who later was lost in a plane crash with Congressman Hale Boggs of Louisiana. The plane went down on the way from Anchorage to Juneau.
Young ran in a special election and won the seat in 1973. He, Sen. Ted Stevens, and Sen. Mike Gravel led the historic battle for approval of the Trans-Alaskan Pipeline.
Young said, “Next to statehood itself, the most historical legislation passed that affected every Alaskan then, now, and in the future, was the passage of the pipeline legislation.”
