Don Young, 88, the long-serving Congressman representing Alaska’s lone seat in the House of Representatives, died on Friday after losing consciousness on an Alaska Airlines flight.
Don Young, Longest Serving Congressman From Alaska, Dies On Alaksa Airlines Flight
Young was traveling to from Los Angeles to Seattle when he lost consciousness onboard. His wife, a nurse, and others onboard were unable to revive him. He was pronounced dead upon landing in Seattle according to his long-time aide, Jack Ferguson. Alaska Airlines has not commented on the incident.
Young was the longest serving current member of Congress, having won 25 consecutive terms representing Alaska’s at-large district. He was traveling back to Alaska to participate in a number of fundraisers ahead of November’s midterm election, where he planned to seek re-election.
I remember first encountering Young in 2008. I was a full-on political junkie at the time and following the U.S. House and Senate races in Alaska. I remember being absolutely amazed at the debate between Mark Begich and Ted Stevens. Steven’s thesis, which he pounded home almost every question, was that he had seniority and he would bring home the pork to Alaska. Next up was a debate between between Young and Ethan Berkowitz and the cantankerous Young played up the pork (even proudly boasting about the “bridge to nowhere” and other earmarks) even more than Stevens.
Young once pulled a 10-inch knife on former Speaker of the House John Boehner after an augment over pork spending (Boehner later served as the best man at his wedding). He once told a Democratic challenger that the last person to touch him “ended up on the ground dead,”
The Curse Of The Flight In Alaska
Three weeks before the election of 1972, U.S. Representative Nick Begich’s plane disappeared while traveling from Anchorage to Juneau. Young was challenging Begich and still lost, with Alaskans voting overwhelming for the missing incumbent. But when it became clear that Begich was dead, Young was elected to Congress in a 1973 special election and held the seat since.
Young’s long-serving colleague in the Senate, Ted Stevens, died in a private plane crash in Alaska in 2010.
There’s something about planes and Alaska’s congressional delegation…
CONCLUSION
Young was quite the character and will be missed by Alaskans. Even President Joe Biden’s latest infrastructure bill included a huge amount of spending for sparsely-populated Alaska, with credit given to Young. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called him “an institution in the hallowed halls of Congress” and noted his “reverence and devotion to the House shone through in everything that he did.”
I imagine someone living in Alaska, let alone a politician regularly commuting to and from the East Coast, is significantly more likely as a matter of pure statistics to die on a plane than the average American.
I’m sorry to see anyone pass away but we need term limits. His net worth is $57 million after 49 years in congress and his entire life in public office. Another interesting twist to this is that his current wife was a flight nurse from Anchorage.
Yup. Like i have said before, everyone is a thief some are just better at getting protection from the law. Indsider trading is legal in congress. Everyone else goes to prison for it. No wonder people work so hard and spend so much money to get into ” public service”.
And the guy who steals bag of chips and coke from the gas station? He is going to prison and might even be killed by a corrupt cop. 57 million against a couple of bucks.
It shouldn’t surprise one to know most long time congress people are fabulously wealthy, even many Democrats. Do you really think all these wealthy Democrats will really pass a tax increase, whatever crap they spout on tv notwithstanding. All corrupt f$cks
Yikes, that’s quite interesting.
Do you know where that money came from? Was he very successful in his early days before turning to politics?
Alaska made a statement yesterday – https://twitter.com/AlaskaAir/status/1505043493143474176
Thanks.
I hope he had business in Los Angeles because it is silly to try to get more miles or an upgrade to fly DCA-LAX-SEA-ANC versus DCA_SEA-ANC.
I wonder if the person(s) assisting the resuscitation recommended landing in Portland or Eugene or Medford, depending on the location of the aircraft at the time.
That story will probably come out – he was traveling with his wife, who is a nurse. Seems odd the plane did not land before SEA unless the incident happened toward the end of the flight.
“One of these days your heart will stop and play it’s final beat. But it’s alright.”