The House’s longest serving member, Alaska’s Rep. Don Young, weathered a tough re-election contest on Tuesday but won his 24th term in the lower chamber.
Young, a Republican, has served in the House since 1973. He defeated Alyse Galvin, an independent candidate who ran and won the Democratic primary.
{mosads}The Republican faced a tight race with Galvin, 53, who generated over $1 million in small donor funding for her campaign. In a last minute push to secure the seat for Young, the Congressional Leadership Fund on Saturday launched a six-figure “hyper-targeted” phone effort to sway votes for the Republican.
Young, 85, became the longest-serving current House member in December 2017 after Rep. John Conyers Jr. (D-Mich.) announced his retirement. He subsequently took the ceremonial title of “Dean of the House,” which is awarded to the longest continuously serving member of the House.