Congressman Don Young, an Alaska Republican, is the longest-serving member of the House of Representatives. | Mark Thiessen/AP Photo Elections GOP super PAC rushes to save Alaska's Don Young from defeat

A super PAC aligned with House Republican leadership is mounting a surprise final-weekend effort to save Alaska Rep. Don Young from defeat on Tuesday.

On Saturday, Congressional Leadership Fund will launch a phone-based get-out-the-vote campaign aimed at dragging Young, the longest-serving member of the House, to victory. The super PAC, which has invested six-figures into the effort, plans to target over 100,000 voters by Election Day.


The move underscores just how far Republicans are being pressed to defend red turf. Young has held his at-large seat since 1973, and President Donald Trump won Alaska in 2016 by nearly 15 percentage points. But this week, a poll showed Young trailing his opponent, public education advocate Alyse Galvin, by a single point. Galvin is an independent who won the Democratic primary.

A Congressional Leadership Fund spokesman, Michael Byerly, described the last-minute campaign as “hyper-targeted,” and aimed at ensuring “voters know the difference between Don Young’s work to cut middle-class taxes and create jobs with Alyse Galvin and Nancy Pelosi’s extreme, liberal agenda that would be a disaster for Alaska.”

CORRECTION: The original version of this story misstated the results of a poll that was released this week.