Mr. Young, who was first elected in 1973, during the Nixon administration, became the longest-serving Republican in House history in 2019.
From 1955 to 1957, he was in the Army and served in a tank battalion.At 26, Mr. Young moved to Alaska soon after it attained statehood in 1959. Mr. Young then won a special election to fill the vacancy and took Alaska’s congressional seat in March 1973, starting his long political life in Washington.On April 28, 2021, Mr. Young announced plans to to run for a 26th term in 2022. He said that he regretted initially dismissing the seriousness of the pandemic and that he supported the use of masks.Mr. Young could be crude in public. With the breakup of the Yukon River ice in spring, he piloted his own tug and barge, carrying supplies to villages along the river.In 1963, Mr. Young married a Native Alaskan bookkeeper, Lula Fredson, an Indigenous Gwich’in, who became his political adviser and office manager. (As chairman, he dropped “Natural” from the committee’s name, renaming it the Committee on Resources, but Democrats changed it back later.)Mr. Young in 1973, the year he was first elected to the House. He was in his 25th term when he died. He also notably introduced Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, the first Native American to serve in the role, at her confirmation hearing last year in the Senate, calling her a friend and emphasizing his own supportive relationships with Alaska Natives and tribal governments.Mr. Young speaking on the House floor on opening day of the 117th Congress at the Capitol last year. Don Young, Alaska Congressman and Dean of the House, Dies at 88Don Young, Alaska Congressman and Dean of the House, Dies at 88Mr. Young, who was first elected in 1973, during the Nixon administration, became the longest-serving Republican in House history in 2019. After Joseph R. Biden’s victory in the 2020 election, however, Mr. Young was one of the first Republicans to congratulate the new president.Even under the Biden administration, Mr. Young showed a willingness to work across the aisle on behalf of his state, becoming one of just 13 Republicans to support a substantial $1 trillion infrastructure bill. Anyone can read what you share.Don Young, the Alaska congressman who secured pork-barrel billions for his state over nearly a half-century and became the longest-serving Republican in the House of Representatives and the oldest current member of both the House and Senate, died on Friday. He was 88. Among them were the replacement of a fire station in Kodiak that was built in the 1940s and the replacement of an old clinic.“We have lost a giant who we loved dearly and who held Alaska in his heart — always,” Senator Lisa Murkowski, Republican of Alaska, said in a statement. “Don was coming home to the place that he loved, and to the people that loved him best.”Gruff and irascible, Mr. Young, who survived occasional allegations of shady ethics, was a staunch opponent of environmental causes and a tough defender of Alaska’s oil, mineral and logging industries. At his death Mr. Young was in his 25th term and 49th year in Congress.When asked in 2020 how long he planned to serve, he told The New York Times, “God will decide that, or the voters.”Mr. Young dated from an era when power in Congress was measured partly by securing of “earmarks,” discretionary spending allocations that lawmakers in both parties use for pet projects in their home districts and states, often by circumventing merit-based or competitive-bidding processes.
Young, who was first elected to the U.S. House in 1973, was known for his brusque style. In later years in office, his off-color comments and gaffes ...
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Rep. Don Young, 88, the oldest and longest-serving member of the current Congress, died Friday.
His chief opponent in the Republican primary was Nick Begich III, a grandson of the only man to ever beat him for the seat, challenging him now from his political right.Rep. Don Young on the opening day of the 117th Congress on Jan. 3, 2021. And we’ll land on lakes and catch fish and have a hell of a good time.”Homer writer Tom Kizzia was a longtime reporter for the Anchorage Daily News. He is author of the books "Pilgrim's Wilderness" and "The Wake of the Unseen Object." His latest book is "Cold Mountain Path," published in 2021. In 2014, in an interview with the Washington Post, Young recalled the clubby congeniality of those early years, when committee members from both parties would meet for drinks after five in the chairman’s office, and then present a united front when others in Congress tried to mess with their bill.Gerry Studds, D-Mass., listens to Rep. Don Young as he blasts members of the Gwich'in delegation at a hearing of the House Subcommittee of Fisheries and Wildlife Conservation and the Environment in Anchorage on August 7, 1991. In November, days after winning his 25th congressional race, Young was hospitalized for three days in Anchorage with a serious case of COVID-19, drawing national headlines as the oldest member of Congress.As dean of the House, Young had the ceremonial responsibility to swear in Democratic Speaker Nancy Pelosi in 2021. The dam project was killed by the Interior Department in 1967.In 1970 Young was elected to the state Senate, and two years after that challenged Nick Begich for Alaska’s single seat in Congress. Begich, the father of later U.S. Sen. Mark Begich and state Sen. Tom Begich, disappeared on a campaign flight to Juneau on October 16, 1972. The congressman from Alaska embarked on another decade in office, where, in the words of one reporter, he would continue to “revel in his reputation for colorful metaphors, bluster and the possibility of fisticuffs.” Those years were highlighted by a second marriage, in 2015, on his 82nd birthday, to Anne Garland Walton, a former flight nurse.Rep. Don Young introduces his wife, Anne Garland Walton, a flight nurse from Fairbanks, to people attending the Alaska Federation of Natives Convention at the Dena'ina Center in Anchorage on Thursday, Oct. 15, 2015. (Marc Lester / ADN archive) Under political fire as well for earmarking $449 million for the Ketchikan’s Gravina Island bridge and the Knik Arm Crossing in Anchorage (dubbed “Don Young’s Way” in the legislation), Young was removed from the Republican Party’s leadership steering committee in 2008 and lost the committee privileges of seniority.He almost lost his congressional seat that year as well, during Gov. Sarah Palin’s Veco-era assault on the state Republican Party establishment. He had to apologize in 2014 for referring in committee to his father’s migrant workers as “wetbacks.” But not for calling environmentalists a “self-centered bunch, the waffle-stomping, Harvard graduating, intellectual idiots.” Young was politically incorrect before it became politically correct for certain Republicans to be politically incorrect.‘A condition of nature in the 49th state’Yet for all his brusque manner, Young’s career was marked by a willingness to strike deals and make friends across the aisle. At a 2003 news conference in Anchorage, he was positively gleeful about his committee’s highway bill, saying he had “stuffed it like a turkey.” When the practice started drawing bipartisan critical attention, he invited the critics to “kiss my ear.”“He can be direct, but you always know where he stands on things, or really, where you stand with him,” said House Speaker Paul Ryan in 2018, when Young was elevated to the honorary title “dean of the House” as its longest-serving member.[Alaska’s first ranked-choice election will be a special vote to replace Rep. Don Young]Former House Speaker John Boehner knew where he stood with Young when the congressman for all Alaska held a 10-inch knife to his throat. After moving on from the state Capitol in Juneau, Young quickly mastered the levers of power in Washington, learning when to bluff and when to trade. (Marc Lester / ADN) U.S. Rep. Don Young shares a laugh with Deborah Moody, a clerk for the Alaska Division of Elections, after he filed paperwork for reelection June 28, 2019, in Anchorage. (Mark Thiessen/Associated Press) The one-time schoolteacher was widely caricatured for mangling the English language (“bladderdash”), for crude gaffes followed by gruff apologies, and for outrageous gestures (he once sat through a congressional hearing with his fingers turning blue in a leg-hold trap, where he was attempting to demonstrate that trapping was not inhumane).He showed up in committee hearings wearing cowboy boots, and cleaned his fingernails with a Bowie knife. (Marc Lester / ADN) Don Young, the irascible riverboat captain who did not so much represent Alaska as personify it for half a century in Congress, died Friday as he was flying home to Alaska for yet another political campaign.Young was 88, the oldest and longest-serving member of the current Congress. In serving the 49th state for 49 years, he had become the longest-serving Republican congressman in history.No cause of death has yet been given.
The Alaska lawmaker was first elected to Congress in 1973 and was the longest-serving congressional Republican in U.S. history.
Young moved to Alaska in 1959, when it became a U. S. state, and worked in construction. Two years later, Young was elected to the state Legislature in Juneau and served in both chambers before heading to Congress. He eventually settled in Fort Yukon, a remote town of 700 residents just miles above the Arctic Circle, and became mayor in 1964. He served two years in the U. S. Army’s 41st Tank Battalion, from 1955 to 1957. “It has been the honor of my life to represent our great state in the House of Representatives for 46 years,” Young said when he was recognized on the House floor for the achievement. I stand energized and as ready as ever to keep up the fight for all of Alaska.”
(The Hill) – Alaska GOP congressman Don Young, the longest-serving member of Congress — known as the Dean of the House — died on Friday night. He was 88.
I knew Don Young for a long time. He always stayed true to who he was and the people of Alaska he represented. Tough. Loyal. A consensus builder. He.
His legacy will continue in the America he loved. Don’s legacy lives on in the infrastructure projects he delighted in steering across Alaska. In the opportunities he advanced for his constituents. In the enhanced protections for Native tribes he championed.
Republican Congressman Don Young, Alaska's lone representative in the U.S. House, has died. He was 88 years old.
“He was a dear friend and mentor, and I have learned so much from this great Alaskan.” “Our prayers go out to his family and especially his wife Anne.” “Don was coming home to the place that he loved, and to the people that loved him best. “For five decades, he was an institution in the hallowed halls of Congress: a serious legislator always bringing people together to do the People’s work.” “... He was all things Alaska, but there was no phoniness to him, no pretensions. “... Don Young is a — he’s always been a living legend. Larger than life, more energy than anybody else could ever keep up with.” According to an announcement from his office, Young’s wife Anne was by his side when he died. His family, his staff, and his many friends ask Alaskans for their prayers during this difficult time.” “I love this body. Dunleavy thanked Young for helping form Alaska into the state it is today. Young won the March 1973 special election to fill Begich’s seat and continued serving ever since.
ANCHORAGE, Alaska — Don Young, a blunt-speaking Republican and longest-serving member of Alaska's congressional delegation, has died. He was 88.
Young was told to repay the value of the trips and gifts, totaling about $59,000, and amend financial disclosure statements to include gifts he hadn’t reported. He was elected mayor of Fort Yukon in 1964 and elected to the state House two years later. “Alaskans have been generous with their support for me because they know I get the job done,” he said in 2016. He counted among his career highlights passage of legislation his first year in office that allowed for construction of the trans-Alaska pipeline system, which became the state’s economic lifeline. He held the seat until 2022, and was running for reelection in November. “Everybody knows Don Young,” he told the AP in 2016. He served two terms before winning election to the state Senate, where, he said, he was miserable. In Alaska, he met his first wife, Lu, who convinced him to enter politics, which he said was unfortunate in one sense — it sent him to Washington, D. C., “a place that’s hotter than hell in the summer. “I can’t stand heat, and I was working on a ranch and I used to dream of some place cold, and no snakes and no poison oak,” Young told The Associated Press in 2016. In Alaska, Young settled in Fort Yukon, a small community accessible primarily by air at the confluence of the Yukon and Porcupine rivers in the state’s rugged, harsh interior. He also served in the U. S. Army, according to his official biography. Young, who was first elected to the U. S. House in 1973, was known for his brusque style.
Lobbyist Jack Ferguson, who was Young's friend and his first chief of staff, confirmed the news Friday afternoon. He said he heard from Alaska Airlines that the ...
He served in the Army from 1955 to 1957, in a tank unit. “I was 18 years old and I went up to Alaska.” Following state law, Gov. Mike Dunleavy must call a special primary to fill the vacancy in May or June of this year. And so I take a little pride in that,” he said. He was ordered to return $59,000. He suffered from back pain that he was hoping to fix through surgery. We hope we continue that … . So thank you, Zack,” he said, signing off. The time he waved an oosik — the penis bone of a walrus — at the first woman named to lead U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. “Half the people of Alaska love me and the other half don’t. But I want them to remember one thing: I gave it my all. It often infuriated him when someone from the Lower 48 testified in favor of preserving Alaska resources he wanted to see developed. He often said he would stay in office until the Alaska voters or God decided otherwise. Hopefully, it’d be as a guy that did the job,” he said in an interview in his Capitol Hill office in 2019.
Young, the longest-serving member of Congress, lost consciousness on a flight from Los Angeles to Seattle, and couldn't be resuscitated, said his former ...
“That was his goal, and he felt he could best help the state in the position he’s held all these years,” Ferguson said. He leaves us a tremendous legacy of bipartisanship in service of the greater good.” “Our initial review of statute is not clear,” Tiffany Montemayor, a state elections division spokeswoman, said in an email. “As dean of the House, Mr. Young taught all of us how to love the people and the states that we represent,” Haaland said. “I’m sad to lose such a good friend, and a person that I’ve known all his political career.” But state election officials have not yet confirmed that those systems will be used to replace Young. It’s that simple.” “We are working with the Department of Law so we can provide the governor, Legislature, and Alaska voters with the clearest possible answer.” Young served in Congress since 1973. “He was vibrant, he had a lot of energy, he’s very clear of mind, spoke clearly about what he wanted to accomplish, set goals that he wanted to make happen, and was happy to be running.” “It’s with heavy hearts and deep sadness that we announce Congressman Don Young, the Dean of the House and revered champion for Alaska, passed away today while traveling home to Alaska to be with the state and people that he loved,” the statement said. John Boehner, a Republican former House speaker, once said Young held a knife to his throat — “mostly true,” Young acknowledged — but then Boehner agreed to be the best man at Young’s wedding.
He had been the longest-serving Republican in the history of the House since 2019.
“We have lost a giant who we loved dearly and who held Alaska in his heart—always,” Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska said in a statement. “It’s with heavy hearts and deep sadness that we announce Congressman Don Young (R-AK), the Dean of the House and revered champion for Alaska, passed away today while traveling home to Alaska to be with the state and people that he loved. But he represented Alaska as the state’s sole representative in the House for so long that he was often referred to as the state’s third senator.