Don Young

Don Young
Born	Donald Edwin Young 9 6, 1933
Birthplace	Meridian, California, U.S.
Died	Template:Death date and age SeaTac, Washington, U.S.
Nationality	American
Occupation	Politician
Known for	Longest-serving Republican in U.S. House history; Alaska's at-large representative (1973–2022)
Spouse(s)	Template:Plainlist
Awards	Dean of the United States House of Representatives

Donald Edwin Young (June 9, 1933 – March 18, 2022) was an American politician who served as the U.S. representative for Alaska's at-large congressional district from 1973 until his death in 2022, a tenure spanning 49 years and making him the longest-serving Republican in the history of the United States House of Representatives. A man who arrived in Alaska the same year it achieved statehood, Young built a political career that took him from the mayoralty of the remote interior town of Fort Yukon to the chairmanships of two powerful congressional committees. He chaired the House Resources Committee from 1995 to 2001 and the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee from 2001 to 2007. Known for his blunt, often colorful personality and his fierce advocacy for Alaskan interests—particularly on matters of natural resources, infrastructure, and indigenous affairs—Young became such a fixture in Washington that he was occasionally referred to as "Alaska's third senator." In December 2017, following the resignation of John Conyers, Young became the 45th Dean of the United States House of Representatives, the first Republican to hold that distinction in more than 84 years.

Early Life

Donald Edwin Young was born on June 9, 1933, in Meridian, a small community in Sutter County, California. He was raised in California, where he spent his formative years before entering military service. Young served in the United States Army, fulfilling his military obligations before turning his attention to the vast opportunities of the American frontier.

In 1959—the same year Alaska was admitted to the Union as the 49th state—Young relocated to the new state, settling in Fort Yukon, a small city located along the Yukon River north of the Arctic Circle in Alaska's interior. Fort Yukon, with its predominantly Alaska Native population, became the foundation of Young's adult life. He took on a variety of occupations in the rugged environment, working as a riverboat captain, a trapper, and a gold miner, as well as serving as a teacher at the local school. These experiences in rural Alaska shaped Young's political outlook and his deep identification with the state's resource-based economy and frontier culture. The Associated Press later described him as having cultivated "the image of a rugged frontiersman," and Young frequently invoked his years in Fort Yukon as evidence of his firsthand understanding of Alaskan life.

Young's involvement in public affairs began at the local level. In 1964, he was elected mayor of Fort Yukon, a position that gave him his first experience in government leadership and established his reputation as a figure willing to advocate for the needs of remote Alaskan communities. His marriage to Lu Fredson, a Gwich'in Athabascan woman from Fort Yukon, in 1963 further deepened his ties to Alaska Native communities and would remain an important element of his personal and political identity throughout his career.

Education

Young attended Chico State College (now California State University, Chico) in California, where he earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1958. His education degree qualified him for the teaching career he would later pursue in Fort Yukon after relocating to Alaska the following year.

Career

Alaska State Legislature

Young's entry into state-level politics came in 1966, when he won election to the Alaska House of Representatives, representing the 16th district. He served in the state House from January 3, 1967, to January 3, 1971, spanning two terms during a formative period in Alaska's political development as a young state. During his time in the state House, Young focused on issues related to Alaska's interior communities, natural resource development, and the concerns of Alaska Native populations.

In 1970, Young advanced to the Alaska Senate, winning election to represent District I. He served in the state Senate from January 11, 1971, to March 6, 1973, when his congressional career began. His time in the state legislature provided Young with the political foundation and name recognition that would prove essential in his subsequent bid for federal office.

Election to Congress

The circumstances of Young's entry to the United States Congress were unusual and dramatic. In 1972, he ran as the Republican candidate for Alaska's at-large seat in the U.S. House of Representatives against the incumbent Democrat, Nick Begich. On October 16, 1972—just weeks before the general election—Begich disappeared along with House Majority Leader Hale Boggs when the small plane carrying them between Anchorage and Juneau vanished over the Gulf of Alaska. Despite being presumed dead, Begich remained on the ballot and won the November election posthumously, defeating Young.

With the seat officially vacant, a special election was called for March 6, 1973. Young ran again, this time defeating Democrat Emil Notti, a prominent Alaska Native leader and former president of the Alaska Federation of Natives. Young won the special election and was sworn into office, beginning what would become one of the longest tenures in the history of the House of Representatives. He was subsequently re-elected to the seat 24 consecutive times, running in every general election from 1974 through 2020 and winning each one.

Committee Chairmanships

Young's long tenure in the House and the Republican takeover of Congress in the 1994 elections brought him to the chairmanship of the House Resources Committee (later renamed the Natural Resources Committee), which he led from January 3, 1995, to January 3, 2001. In this role, Young wielded considerable influence over federal land management, natural resource extraction, and policies affecting Alaska and the western United States. He was a vocal advocate for opening the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) to oil drilling, a position that placed him at the center of one of the most contentious environmental debates in American politics.

Following his tenure on the Resources Committee, Young became chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, serving from January 3, 2001, to January 3, 2007. As Transportation Committee chair, Young oversaw the passage of the Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy for Users (SAFETEA-LU) in 2005, a major federal highway and transit funding bill. The legislation was notable for its inclusion of earmarked projects, including funding for a proposed bridge connecting the town of Ketchikan to Gravina Island, which housed the local airport. The project, estimated to cost approximately $398 million for a bridge that would serve an island with a population of roughly 50 people, became one of the most prominent symbols of congressional earmark spending and was widely dubbed the "Bridge to Nowhere" by critics and the media.

Taxpayers for Common Sense, a nonpartisan budget watchdog organization, awarded Young their Golden Fleece Award in connection with the Gravina Island Bridge project and other earmarked transportation spending. The bridge project was eventually scaled back and ultimately never built, though the controversy over the earmark became a significant issue in the 2008 presidential campaign and contributed to a broader national debate about the practice of congressional earmarking.

Legislative Record and Advocacy

Throughout his nearly five decades in Congress, Young was a consistent advocate for Alaska's economic interests, particularly in the areas of resource extraction, fisheries, transportation, and infrastructure. As the sole U.S. representative for a state with vast federal landholdings and a resource-dependent economy, Young positioned himself as a defender of Alaskan sovereignty over its natural resources and a critic of federal environmental regulations that he viewed as impediments to the state's development.

Young was instrumental in securing federal funding for infrastructure projects in Alaska, a state where vast distances, extreme weather, and limited road networks made transportation a perennial challenge. His work on the Transportation Committee allowed him to direct significant resources to Alaskan projects, including roads, bridges, ports, and aviation infrastructure. The federal government later established the Don Young Alaska Aviation Safety Initiative, a program developed to create a comprehensive blueprint for increasing aviation safety in a state where small aircraft serve as a primary mode of transportation.

Young also championed the Young Fishermen's Development Act, legislation aimed at supporting new entrants into the commercial fishing industry. The act was later reauthorized by subsequent Congresses.

Young signed the Americans for Tax Reform's Taxpayer Protection Pledge, committing not to raise taxes.

Ethics Investigations

Young's long career was not without ethical scrutiny. He faced an ethics investigation related to his financial dealings and campaign contributions. In 2013, reports surfaced regarding a renewed ethics inquiry, to which Young responded publicly. Young also faced questions about his failure to disclose his ownership interest in his family's farm, which held gas leases, for a period of years, as required by congressional disclosure rules. Separate federal investigations were also reported in connection with Young's dealings. No criminal charges were filed against Young.

Personality and Controversies

Young was known throughout his career for a blunt, sometimes abrasive public demeanor that made him one of the more colorful figures in Congress. The Associated Press described him as "brusque" and noted his penchant for "off-color" remarks, while The New York Times observed that he had "cultivated the image of a rugged frontiersman." His long tenure and his position as Alaska's sole House member led to him being occasionally dubbed "Alaska's third senator," reflecting the outsized role he played in representing the state's interests in Washington.

Young generated controversy on multiple occasions with provocative public statements. In 2013, he used the term "wetbacks" in a radio interview while discussing labor practices, a remark that drew widespread condemnation. Young issued a statement saying he "meant no prior prior prior disrespect." The Alaska Dispatch compiled a retrospective of Young's history of provocative statements and confrontations over the years.

In 2014, Young made comments about suicide that prompted U.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski to publicly call on him to apologize. Young subsequently issued an apology.

Dean of the House

On December 5, 2017, following the resignation of Michigan Democrat John Conyers amid allegations of sexual harassment, Young became the Dean of the United States House of Representatives, the title given to the longest-continuously-serving member of the body. Young was the first Republican to hold the position since Joseph Gurney Cannon, who had served as dean until 1923—a gap of more than 84 years. As dean, Young held the ceremonial responsibility of swearing in the Speaker of the House at the opening of each new Congress.

Young continued to serve in the House and won his final re-election in 2020. He remained an active member of Congress into 2022, having represented Alaska for nearly half a century.

Personal Life

Young married Lu Fredson in 1963, and the couple had two daughters together. Lu Young, who was of Gwich'in Athabascan heritage from Fort Yukon, was a significant figure in her husband's life and political career. She died in 2009 after 46 years of marriage.

In 2014, Young introduced his fiancée, Anne Garland Walton, at a public event. The couple subsequently married in 2015.

Young died on March 18, 2022, while traveling from Alaska to Washington, D.C. He was 88 years old and died on a flight that was on the ground at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport in SeaTac, Washington. At the time of his death, he was the longest-serving member of the 117th Congress and the longest-serving Republican in the history of the House of Representatives. He had represented Alaska for 49 years.

Recognition

Young's decades of service to Alaska were recognized through several naming honors. The Port of Alaska in Anchorage was renamed the Don Young Port of Alaska in his honor. The Federal Aviation Administration established the Don Young Alaska Aviation Safety Initiative (DYAASI), a comprehensive program aimed at increasing aviation safety throughout the state.

Young's tenure of 49 years in the House made him the longest-serving Republican in the chamber's history. His service as Dean of the House from December 2017 until his death in March 2022 marked him as one of the most senior members of Congress in the modern era. He was succeeded as dean by Hal Rogers of Kentucky.

Throughout his career, Young was recognized by various organizations for his positions on legislation, both positively and critically. His receipt of the Golden Fleece Award from Taxpayers for Common Sense reflected the scrutiny applied to his earmarking practices, while his sustained re-election by Alaskan voters through more than two dozen elections demonstrated his enduring popularity in his home state.

Legacy

Don Young's nearly half-century in Congress left a substantial mark on Alaska and on the institution of the House of Representatives. As his state's sole representative in the House, he exercised an unusually broad portfolio, advocating for Alaska on matters ranging from oil development and fisheries management to transportation infrastructure and Native affairs. His chairmanship of two major committees gave him significant leverage over federal policy in areas central to Alaska's economy and way of life.

Young's legacy is intertwined with the broader debates over federal land management and resource extraction in Alaska. His persistent advocacy for opening ANWR to drilling and his defense of Alaskan resource development positioned him as a central figure in national environmental policy disputes that remained unresolved long after his death. His work on transportation legislation, while controversial for its earmarks, directed substantial federal investment into Alaska's infrastructure at a time when the state's transportation network remained underdeveloped relative to the rest of the country.

The special election held following Young's death in 2022 resulted in the election of Mary Peltola, a Yup'ik Alaska Native woman and the first Democrat to hold the seat since Nick Begich in 1972. Peltola's victory marked the end of an era of Republican representation that Young had sustained for nearly five decades.

Young's personality—his bluntness, his identification with frontier life, and his willingness to speak in terms that often offended—was itself a legacy, representing a style of politics rooted in Alaska's self-image as a place apart from the rest of the nation. Whether viewed as refreshingly candid or needlessly provocative, his manner contributed to his durability as a political figure in a state that valued independence and toughness.