Alise Galvin and incumbent Don Young are competing for a second time for Alaska’s only seat in the US House of Representatives

US Rep. Don Young fights a second challenge from Alize Galvin for Alaska’s only seat in the US House of Representatives after being defeated in 2018.

Young, the longest serving Republican in the US House of Representatives, is seeking his twenty-fifth term in Tuesday’s election.

In this year’s race, Galvin, 55, tried to paint Young as someone who had lost influence and who, at 87, was no longer able to do the job effectively. She is an independent, won the Democratic primary.

Young people are among the most effective members of Congress and continue to work hard for Alaska. He tried to connect Galvin with the liberal democrats. An advertisement appeared on the Anchorage city bus facing House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a California Democrat, with the words: “Alise Galvin is on the Pelosi team.”

Young called Galvin by the wrong first name on three occasions in the last two debates before the election, referring to her as Alice or Alison.

“Okay, Don, let’s start with my name, Alice Galvin. Please show the kind of respect that we know Alaskans expect of all candidates running for Congress,” she said when correcting last week during a hypothetical forum organized by the Fairbanks Chamber of Commerce.

“It is not clear if this was a deliberate insult or if he could not remember his opponent from three years ago.” Galvin campaign manager Malcolm Phelan said, “Regardless, Alaskans deserve better.”

Numerous letters seeking comment to Young’s campaign manager Don Young, his Congressional spokesperson Zach Brown and to Glenn Clary, the head of the Alaska Republican Party, were not returned to the Associated Press.

Young was born on June 9, 1933 in Meridian, California. He took a teaching leave in 1958 from Chico State College and moved to Alaska. He eventually settled in the village of Fort Yukon, above the Arctic Circle, where he taught at the School of Indian Affairs office.

He became only the fourth person since the founding of the state to represent Alaska in the US House of Representatives. The Republican lost to U.S. Rep. Nick Bigich, a Democrat, in the 1972 election even though Bigitch and Representative Hill Boggs of Louisiana were missing and presumably dead when their plane did not reach Juneau on her campaign flight.

Young won a special election for the seat the following year after Begisch’s death was announced. Young now holds the ceremonial title of Dean of the House of Representatives, which is conferred on the body’s longest serving term with no formal duties other than taking oath at the start of a new term.

Galvin is a third-generation Alaskan advocate of public schools. Her husband, Pat, is an oil director and worked in the government of former Republican Gov. Sarah Palin.

Young and Galvin have a contentious relationship. During the 2018 debate, Galvin complained that Young injured her hand while shaking hands. Young replied that she had organized it for publicity.