Incumbent Democratic Representative Nick Begich Sr. had won reelection in 1972, but had gone missing shortly before the election.

Begich's seat was declared vacant by a jury and a special election was ordered by Governor William A. Egan.

Representative Nick Begich Sr. disappeared while traveling on an airplane with House Majority Leader Hale Boggs on October 16, 1972, and was never found.

According to Alaskan law a special election must be called by the governor within sixty to ninety days after a vacancy is declared.

[3] Three petitions calling for a presumptive death hearing for Begich were filed in the Juneau District Court, and was later transferred to Anchorage.

[4][5] On December 12, the six-member jury deliberated for twenty minutes before ruling that Begich and two other people on board the plane were presumably dead.

[14][15] On December 28, the Alaska Supreme Court ruled against Notti's appeal which forced the Democratic Party to select its candidate at a convention.

[20] Following the convention Democratic National committeeman Cliff Warren announced that he would drop his appeal to the ruling baring a committee meeting to select the party's special election candidate.

[21] Former Governor Keith Harvey Miller, Anchorage Mayor George M. Sullivan, former Commissioner of Natural Resources Tom Kelley, and state senators Clifford Groh and Lowell Thomas Jr., who had been speculated as possible candidates for the Republican nomination in the special election, announced that they would support Don Young for the Republican nomination.