Republican Don Young dies at 88
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Alaska Representative Don Young, who was the longest serving Republican in the history of the US House of Representatives, has died. He is 88 years old.
His office announced Young’s death in a statement Friday night.
“It is with heavy hearts and deep sadness that we announce that Congressman Don Young (R-AK), Speaker of the House and respected champion of Alaska, passed away today as is traveling back to Alaska to be with the state and the people he loves.” His beloved wife Anne has been by his side,” said a statement from Young’s parliamentary office.
Cause of death not provided. Young’s office said details of Young’s birthday celebration plans are expected in the coming days.
Young, who was first elected to the United States House of Representatives in 1973, was known for his rough style. During his final years in office, comments and one-sided glances sometimes overshadowed his work. During his 2014 reelection run, he described himself as fierce and less than perfect but said he would not stop fighting for Alaska. Alaska has only one member of the House of Representatives.
Republican Don Young, R-Alaska, died March 18, 2022.
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Born on June 9, 1933, in Meridian, California, Young grew up on a family farm. He earned a bachelor’s degree in teaching from Chico State College, now known as California State University, Chico, in 1958. He also served in the United States Army, according to his official biography.
Young arrived in Alaska in 1959, the same year Alaska became a state, and credits Jack London’s “The Call of the Wild,” which his father often reads to him, for drawing him north.
“I can’t stand the heat, and I was working on a farm and I used to dream of somewhere cold, with no snakes and no poison oak,” Young told the AP news agency in 2016. After leaving the army and following his father. dead, he told his mother he was going to Alaska. She questioned his decision.
“I said, ‘I’m going to drive dogs, catch fur, and I want to mine for gold.” And I made it,” he said. In Alaska, he met his first wife, Lu, who convinced him to enter politics, which he said was unlucky in a sense – it brought him to Washington, DC, “a place hotter than hell in the summer. And there’s a lot of snakes here, two-legged snakes.”
In Alaska, Young settled in Fort Yukon, a small community mostly accessible by air at the confluence of the Yukon and Porcupine rivers in the state’s rugged, harsh hinterland. He has worked in areas such as construction, trapping and commercial fishing. He was a tug and barge operator who supplied goods to villages along the Yukon River, and he taught fifth grade at a school run by the Bureau of Indian Affairs, according to his biography. With Lu, he has two daughters, Joni and Dawn.
He was elected mayor of Fort Yukon in 1964 and was elected to the House of Representatives two years later. He served two terms before winning election to the state Senate, where he said, he was miserable. Lu says he needs to leave his job, which he has resisted and says he’s not quitting. He recalled that she encouraged him to run for the US House instead, saying he would never win.
In 1972, Young was the Republican challenger to US Democratic Representative Nick Begich. Three weeks before the election, Begich’s plane disappeared on a flight from Anchorage to Juneau. Anyway, Alaska chose Begich again.
Begich was declared dead in December 1972, and Young won a special election in March 1973. Young held the seat until his death. He ran for re-election this year against a field that included one of Begich’s grandsons, Republican Nicholas Begich III.
In 2013, Young became the longest-serving member of the Alaska congressional delegation, surpassing the late US Senator Ted Stevens, who served for 40 years.
In 2015, nearly six years after Lu Young’s death, and on her 82nd birthday, Young married Anne Garland Walton in a private ceremony in the chapel of the United States Capitol.
“Everybody knows Don Young,” he told the AP in 2016. “They might not like Don Young; they might love Don Young. But they all know Don Young.”
The often gruff Young has a good sense of humor and close friendships with colleagues on either side of the aisle.
The longest-serving House member, Young was sworn in before Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, a California Democrat, when the 117th Congress convened on January 3, 2021 – three days before the attack on the Capitol by supporters of outgoing President Donald Trump. Before taking the oath of office, Young expressed disappointment at the tense partisan situation of the period.
“When you really have a problem or if something is controversial, let’s sit down and have a drink and work it out,” he said, drawing laughter and applause.
Pelosi, in a statement, said “Young’s reverence and devotion to the House has shown through all that he has done.” She called him “an institution in the sacred halls of Congress.”
She said photographs of him with 10 presidents, Republicans and Democrats, signing his bills into law “are testament to his longevity and ability to legislate”.
The youngster, known for decades directing federal spending for his home state, won $23.7 million for Alaska for water, road and other projects in the project. The $1.5 trillion government spending bill that President Joe Biden signed into law this week, according to an analysis of that. Associated Press bill. This is one of the highest amounts on estate projects any member of the House of Representatives has in law.
Young said he wants his legacy to be a work for the people. During his career, he talked about passing legislation authorizing the construction of the Trans-Alaska pipeline system, which has become the economic lifeline of the state. With that successful pipeline fight, “I’ve found a niche in my life where I enjoy working for the people of Alaska and this country – mainly the people of Alaska,” Young said in 2016, after it added: “I like the House.”
Throughout his career, he has unreasonably advocated imprints as a way to bring home projects and build infrastructure in a geographically large state where the communities range from large cities to small villages; Critics claim that the earmarks are pork.
Young considers himself a conservative and won support among voters for his stance on gun and hunting rights as well as a strong military. He forged a cause against “radical environmentalists” and a federal bureaucracy that he saw as the key to Alaska’s mineral, timber, and oil resources. He said his words were a “golden bond.”
He says he’s happy every time he can help someone vote. “And I try to do it every day, and I’m good at it,” he told the AP in 2016.
His career has been marred by investigations and criticism over his outdated and often abrasive style.
In 2008, Congress asked the Department of Justice to investigate Young’s role in securing a $10 million fund for highway expansion in Florida; The matter was dismissed in 2010, and Young denied any wrongdoing.
“The Alaskans generously support me because they know I’ve got the job done. I’ll defend my state against my death, and I’ll always do it and they know it.
In December 2011, the US House of Representatives Ethics Committee said it was amending its rules to impose new contribution limits on owners who run multiple companies following questions raised by The nonpartisan Office of Congressional Ethics released about contributions to Young’s legal expenses fund.
In 2014, the ethics committee found that Young had violated House rules by using campaign funds for personal trips and accepting inappropriate gifts. Young was required to return the value of the trips and gifts, totaling approximately $59,000, and amend the financial disclosure statements to include gifts he had not reported. The committee also issued a “letter of reprimand”, or reprimand. Young said he regretted the “negligence” and apologized for not taking “careful” in compliance with the House Code of Conduct.
Having just won re-election in 2020, Young announced that he has tested positive for Covid-19, months after he called the coronavirus the “beer virus” in front of an audience. includes older Alaskans and says the media has contributed to the hysteria over Covid -19.
He then called Covid-19, where he was hospitalized, taking it seriously and encouraging Alaska to follow guidelines meant to be a precaution against illness.
Voters repeatedly sent Young back to Washington, something Young said he didn’t take for granted.
“The Alaskans have generously supported me because they know I got the job done,” he said in 2016. “I will defend my state against my death, and I will always do it and they know. that.”