Independent Alyse Galvin is back in the running again for the U.S. House seat that Rep Don Young, R-Alaska, has held since 1973.
Galvin filed for the 2020 House race on July 16 in Anchorage, and issued a statement saying that the state “is facing an internal crisis, and we need a representative to advocate for our communities. It’s time that we prioritize our state’s future over the needs of corporate donors,” she said.
Young is serving his 24th term in the U.S. House.
In the 2018 election, Galvin garnered the most votes for Young’s House seat of any challengers in the past decade, a total of 131,199 votes or 46 percent, compared to 149,779 votes, or 53 percent of the vote for the incumbent.
Galvin said she’s looking to build on the success of her last campaign, which included strong grassroots support for a campaign with emphasis on public education, jobs with real wage growth and affordable health care.
Galvin a third generation Alaskan, spent the last five years as a founder and leader of Great Alaska Schools, an organization that brought together parents, students, educators and community members to protect public schools from massive budget cuts.
“Like I always have, I welcome all challengers and look forward to a spirited campaign as we debate the issues important to Alaskans,” Young said, in a statement issued by his re-election campaign office in Anchorage.
“For twenty-four terms, Alaskans have trusted me to secure important wins on their behalf, and my motivation to serve is the same as it was when I first ran for Congress. I am confident that Alaskans will once again choose the candidate with the proven record of getting big things accomplished.”
Young, born in Meridian, Calif., moved to Alaska in 1959, and settled in Fort Yukon, earning a living in construction, fishing, trapping and gold mining, and in winter months, he taught fifth grade at the local Bureau of Indian Affairs elementary school.
In 1972 he lost his bid for Alaska’s House seat in Congress to incumbent Democrat Nick Begich, who disappeared along with U.S. Speaker of the House Hale Boggs, D-La, in a plane crash days before the election. The plane was never found. Subsequently Young won a special election in March 1973 and has served in Congress since.
