Don Young holds the fundraising lead among congressional candidates

WASHINGTON — Longtime U.S. Rep. Don Young has the fundraising lead in this year's congressional race in Alaska, but a challenger running in the Democratic primary — Alyse Galvin — has made significant gains in recent months.

Young raised about $800,000 as of August 1, according to the latest tallies available from the Federal Election Commission (FEC). Galvin raised nearly $600,000. Young had nearly $435,000 remaining on hand, and Galvin had just over $250,000 remaining as of August 1.

Galvin, an independent candidate, is taking on Dimitri Shein in the Democratic primary next week. Shein has raised $195,000 overall and had $108,349.04 remaining on hand as of August 1. But most of that is his own money: He contributed $40,000 early in the campai gn and recently offered the campaign a cash infusion with a $100,000 loan. Shein's campaign can repay him that money after the election, if the cash is available.

Young, a Republican, will face Thomas John Nelson in the August 21 primary election. Nelson, who counts himself as a fan of the congressman but wants the 85 year old to hand over power to a successor, raised just $4,939.16 as of August 1, according to the FEC. He had just over $1,000 on hand.

Young's fundraising tallies reflect the benefits of his position: an incumbent, re-elected 21 times, currently the "Dean of the House," the longest-sitting member of the House. Most of his individual contributions — more than $391,000 — come from people contributing more than $200 each. Just $29,748.93 came from small-dollar contributors as of August 1, according to the FEC. Roughly half of Young's haul came from Political Action Committees (PACs) — more than $375,000.

[Education advocate aiming to unseat longtime Alaska Rep. Don Young]

Some of Young's biggest corporate donations came from the PAC and employees of Edison Chouest Offshore, a company with a long history of Alaska operations and a likely builder of any future new American icebreakers. Other major contributions came from the oil and gas industry, transportation unions, GCI and Trident Inc. Young also received $24,000 in donations from various sugar industry PACs.

The congressman is a member of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee and the Natural Resources Committee.

Galvin's contributions reflect the fundraising of an unelected candidate: more small-dollar contributions and hardly any from PACs. Donors spending $200 or less put $157,000 into her coffers. Galvin drew only $9,000 from PACs: $4,000 from the National Education Association fund, $1,000 from a local United Food and Commercial Workers union, and $4,000 from the defunct campaign of Steve Lindbeck, the last Democratic candidate to challenge Young.

Lindbeck and Young both ultimately raised just over $1 million each during the 2016 congressional campaign.

Galvin and Shein will debate Tuesday, August 14 at 5:30pm at 49th State Brewing Co. in Anchorage. The event is free to the public and will be broadcast online on the Alaska Democrats Facebook page.