“It is with a heavy heart and deep sadness that we announce that Congressman Don Young (R-AK), the Dean of the House and respected champion for Alaska, passed away today while traveling home to Alaska to join the state and the people to be what he loved,” the statement said. “His beloved wife Anne was by his side.”
Young was reelected in 2020 to his 25th term as Alaska’s sole representative. He was the longest-serving member of the current Congress.
Young was first sworn into Congress after winning a special election on March 6, 1973.
The congressman’s office remembered him as a “fierce defender of Alaska,” writing that “from the Trans-Alaska Pipeline, to the Ketchikan Shipyard, to the Magnuson Stevens Act, which transformed the U.S. fishing industry, to The numerous land swaps for which he fought, Don Young’s legacy cannot be overstated.”
Young was a member of the House Natural Resources Committee in current Congress.
This story is breaking and will be updated.