Politics

Don Young praises Begich

The Hill, the D.C. insider's newspaper, on Wednesday published an item in which U.S. Rep. Don Young said he thought Sen. Mark Begich had done a great job but should expect a tough challenge to hold onto his seat this year.

Begich, a Democrat, "is drawing praise from across the aisle from one of Alaska's top Republicans," The Hill said on its campaign blog.

"Mark's done a great job of very frankly representing people. He's not always on my page, that's for sure, but he's done a good job," Young told The Hill, according to the blog item.

But Begich may run into trouble over his votes for Democratic priorities, Young told the paper.

"His big challenge is some of the votes he made are not popular in the state of Alaska and very frankly it's a serious red state," he said. "He's done a good job in six years, but very frankly it's going to be hard for him."

Alaska has far more registered Republicans than Democrats. Three prominent Republicans -- Lt. Gov. Mead Treadwell, former natural resources Commissioner Dan Sullivan and 2010 GOP Senate nominee Joe Miller -- are all fighting for the chance to take on Begich in November.

Lisa Demer

Anchorage

Lisa Demer

Lisa Demer was a longtime reporter for the Anchorage Daily News and Alaska Dispatch News. Among her many assignments, she spent three years based in Bethel as the newspaper's western Alaska correspondent. She left the ADN in 2018.

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