Remembering Rep. Don Young: Congressman Only Death Could Defeat

"I lost my first race for Congress to a dead man," Rep. Don Young, R-Alaska, told a visitor to his office in 1989.

It was a line he would frequently use in discussing his career in Congress that finally ended with Young's own death March 18 at age 88 and after nearly 50 years as Alaska's congressman at large.

On October 16, 1972, then-Rep. Nick Begich, D-Alaska, and House Democrat Leader Hale Boggs, D-La., (who was campaigning for Begich) disappeared in a Cessna 310 twin-engine aircraft that was flying from Anchorage to Juneau. They were never found. Nevertheless, Begich's name remained on the ballot and he defeated GOP challenger Young with 56% of the vote. On Dec. 29, Begich was declared legally dead and Young won the resulting special election.

Death, poignantly, was responsible for Don Young going to Congress and death was the only opponent capable of defeating him.

At the time of his death, the Alaskan was the longest-serving U.S. representative as well as the longest-serving Republican House member in history.

"Don Young served with my father," Rep. Jim Hagedorn, R-Minn., (who died earlier this month) told Newsmax in 2019, referring to his father, former Rep. Tom Hagedorn, R-Minn. "And Don served with [Wyoming Rep.] Liz Cheney's father. Come to think of it, Don served with the Founding Fathers!"

In a 2013 interview, Young recalled growing up on his father's ranch in central California and referred to his migrant workers as "wetbacks." Young later apologized for what he said was an "insensitive term," explaining it was "commonly used" in his youth,

That same year, the House Ethics Committee investigated him for using campaign funds for personal expenses and giving false information to federal officials. Young was also investigated by the Department of Justice for allegedly steering $10 million to a Florida company, and by an Alaskan probe into political corruption over his ties to the VECO oil and gas corporation.

No charges were ever filed against him. As Young told the Anchorage Daily News in 2013, "I've been under a cloud all my life. I'm sort of like living in Juneau. It rains on you all the time. You don't even notice it."

No scandal, no gaffe, and no opponent could stop the onetime tugboat captain. Democrats and Republican primary opponents slammed Young hard, but he always emerged on top — more often than not, by a decisive margin.

Sometimes challenging Don Young was a family affair. In 1984 and '86, more than a decade after her husband's disappearance, Pegge Begich ran for the at-large seat and Young beat her — with 55% in 1984 and 56% in '86.

Having demolished Democrat Pat Parnell in 1980, Young faced his son in 2008. Sean Parnell, who was a conservative Republican, the lieutenant governor of Alaska, and had the backing of then-Gov. Sarah Palin (whose strong animosity toward Young was mutual) and the conservative Club for Growth. Singling out Parnell at the state GOP convention, an angry Young swore he would defeat him "just like I did your daddy."

He did — sort of. In primary results that took 10 days to count, Young eked out a victory over Parnell by 304 votes. One possible reason for the venerable incumbent's survival was his strong support from former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, whose presidential candidacy that year saw Young as one of the few members of Congress to endorse.

The easy answer to the reason for Don Young's survival is he "brought home the bacon." As chairman of the Natural Resources and then the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, the lone congressman from the 47th most populous state was in a position to channel federal largess to the Land of the Midnight Sun. In the 2005 Highway Bill, he was responsible for $941 million for 119 special projects – $231 million of that figure went for a bridge in Anchorage named, appropriately, Don Young's Way.

But there was another reason voters kept reelecting Don Young: They liked him. The Chico State College (California) graduate and U.S. Army veteran who settled in Alaska soon after it became a state in 1959 had a versatile career as teacher, trapper, fisherman, construction worker, and tugboat captain. He met diverse groups of people who would elect him mayor of Fort Yukon, send him to the state legislature, and then make him congressman for more than two generations.

"I loved Don," Mike Huckabee told Newsmax. "He was brutally honest, but was a man who loved life, loved Alaska, loved Congress, but never lost being that salty old river boat captain who loved to hunt and fish. What a character!

"We talked on the phone every few months – two old friends who thought politics was important, but friendship and the thrill of being in the woods or on the water made life better!"

John Gizzi is chief political columnist and White House correspondent for Newsmax. For more of his reports, Go Here Now.