Rep. Don Young seeks 25th term, warns it won’t be easy to beat him

Updated: June 29, 2019 Published: June 29, 2019

U.S. Rep. Don Young shares a laugh with Deborah Moody, a clerk for the Alaska Division of Elections, after he filed paperwork for re-election Friday, June 28, 2019, in Anchorage, Alaska. The 86-year-old Alaska Republican is seeking a 25th term and was first elected in 1973. (AP Photo/Mark Thiessen)

Don Young wants a 25th term as Alaska’s sole representative in the U.S. House of Representatives.

The 86-year-old Republican has been in office since winning a special election in 1973 to fill the unexpired term of Democratic U.S. Rep. Nick Begich, who was declared dead after his plane went missing in Southeast Alaska.

Young officially filed his paperwork Friday at the Division of Elections office in Anchorage.

I'M IN! Today I filed for re-election to a 25th term as Congressman for All Alaska! pic.twitter.com/6R4bIhLWSz
— Don Young (@DonYoungAK) June 29, 2019

Young marked 46 years in the House last March, surpassing the late former Speaker Joseph Cannon of Illinois to become the longest-serving Republican.

Young said he remains effective in the job and warned those who would want to take it away from him, saying: “Get your act together because it’s not going to be easy to take it away from me.”