About Mark Begich
Mark Peter Begich ( BEGG-itch; born March 30, 1962) is an American politician and lobbyist who served as a United States senator from Alaska from 2009 to 2015. A member of the Democratic Party, he served as mayor of Anchorage from 2003 to 2009. As of 2026, he is the most recent Democrat to serve Alaska in the U.S. Senate. Begich was born in Anchorage, making him the first US Senator native to the state. He is the son of former US Representative Nick Begich Sr. He was elected to the Anchorage Assembly at the age of 26. He eventually served as chairman for three years, before leaving the Assembly in 1998. Begich ran two unsuccessful campaigns for Mayor of Anchorage in 1994 and 2000 before being elected in 2003. He was reelected in 2006. In the 2008 Senate election, Begich narrowly defeated incumbent Ted Stevens, at the time the longest-serving Republican member of the US Senate. In the 2014 Senate election, Begich was narrowly defeated in his bid for reelection by former Alaska Attorney General Dan Sullivan. Following completion of his term in the US Senate, Begich started Anchorage-based consulting firm Northern Compass Group. On June 1, 2018, Begich announced his candidacy for the Democratic nomination for Governor of Alaska in the 2018 election, facing off against Republican nominee and former state senator Mike Dunleavy. He lost the gubernatorial election by a margin of seven percentage points. Although the office is officially nonpartisan, Begich was the first Democrat to be elected Mayor of the Municipality of Anchorage since Tony Knowles. Begich's victory made him Alaska's first Democratic US Senator since Mike Gravel left office in 1981. Begich sponsored 164 bills of his own, including: S. 1561–1566, Begich's first bills, each introduced on August 3, 2009, would address a number of issues affecting the Arctic region. Sullivan, who won with 40%; 2010 US Senate nominee Joe Miller (32%); and John Jaramillo (3%).
Biography source: Wikipedia. The profile adds birthday-specific historical context from the Celebs Birthday Today editorial database.