Opinion: Democrats want to knock out the longest-serving member of Congress. Can they pull it off?

Henry Olsen- September 24th, 2020

ANCHORAGE — Alaska is an immense, sparsely populated state filled with unspoiled nature. But here in the Anchorage metropolitan area, where more than half of the state’s residents live, it looks like just another American suburb — even if surrounded by national forests and snow-capped mountains. This dichotomy between the old, frontier Alaska and the new, urban state is why the current longest-serving member of the U.S. House, Republican Don Young, faces a serious challenge.

Young’s race is emblematic of the type of seat Democrats are eyeing to make 2020 another good year for them. Alaska is historically a red state but has voted for Democrats in statewide elections on occasion. Young has served in Alaska’s sole House seat since 1973, long enough to have experienced three presidential impeachments. But he has not received more than 54 percent of the vote since 2012. Testing his staying power is a good bet for a party looking to pad its House majority.

First elected to public office in 1964 as the mayor of tiny Fort Yukon, Young is a living reminder of when the 49th state’s population was largely rural, poor and dependent on federal transfers. The discovery of oil in Prudhoe Bay in 1968 changed all of that, sparking a boom that more than doubled the state’s population since Young’s first race. Today, two-thirds of the population lives in urban areas.

Young’s opponent, Alyse Galvin — born a year after he first took office as mayor — hails from this new Alaska. A resident of suburban Anchorage, Galvin ran against Young in 2018 and received 46.5 percent of the vote, the best anyone has fared against him since 1990. Democrats across the country noticed, and she had raised more than $2.2 million as of July 31. Galvin says Young can no longer deliver the federal investment and support the state needs to recover from the massive decline in the price of oil and loss of tourism the pandemic has caused. She contends she can win even if Trump carries the state because Alaskans are looking for change, transparency and honesty. “I’m a straight shooter that way,” she told me.

Galvin certainly knows what she needs to do to win. She has avoided supporting key progressive priorities such as Medicare-for-all and the Green New Deal. Instead, she notes that Medicare often underpays for procedures and that rural doctors and hospitals need the revenue from private insurance to stay open. She hits progressive notes when she talks about “the climate crisis” and the need to have “affordable health care for everyone,” but strikes moderate tones on solutions to these challenges. As she puts it, she’s open to solutions on health care that do not “strangle our small businesses.” She’s for “responsible resource development” that includes more oil and gas exploration along with developing Alaska’s renewable energy sources. Essentially, she’s the Alaskan version of the moderate Democratic women who captured a host of formerly Republican suburban seats in 2018.