Some Rush Holt Trivia

Just a little trivia about Rush Holt, a Democrat who represented New Jersey’s 12th district in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1999 until his retirement in 2015.  Holt is celebrating his 70th birthday today.

Holt was born in West Virginia in 1948, after his father, Rush Holt Sr., had already served in the United States Senate.  Holt Sr. was elected to the West Virginia House of Delegates in 1931, at age 26, and in 1934, at age 29. He beat seven opponents in the Democratic primary and defeated a former U.S. Senator with 55% to win the general election.

Since the U.S. Constitution requires Senators to be at least 30-years-old, Holt Sr. had to wait six months to take the oath of office.  His seat remained vacant until then – how would a New Jersey Judge handle that question today?

Holt was a New Dealer when he was elected in 1934, but by the time he ran for re-election in 1940, he had become an isolationist and critic of President Franklin Roosevelt.  Without the backing of the White House of he United Mine Workers union, he finished third in the primary with 13% of the vote.

Staging a political comeback, he won back his old seat in the state legislature in 1942.

He sought the Democratic nomination for Governor of West Virginia in 1944, losing the Democratic nomination by a 55%-24% margin.  He ran for the U.S. Senate again in 1948 and finished second in the Democratic primary, 49%-26%.

In 1949, Holt switched parties and in 1950 won the Republican nomination for Congress in West Virginia’s 3rd district against incumbent Cleveland Bailey.  He lost by 9,205 votes, 54%-46%.

Holt won the Republican nomination for Governor of West Virginia in 1952, winning a four-candidate field with 48% of the vote.  He narrowly lost the general election, 51.5%-49.5%, to Democrat William Marland.

In 1954, Holt again returned to the state legislature and won back his old House of Delegates seat, this time as a Republican.

Rush Holt Sr. died of cancer in 1955, at the age of 49.  His son was six-years-old.

More: After Holt died, his widow, Helen Holt, took his seat in the West Virginia House of Delegates.  Now a single mother, she chose not to run when her seat came up in 1956.  The following year, she was appointed West Virginia Secretary of State, but lost a bid for a full term in the Democratic year of 1958.  She later worked in the administrations of six presidents.  Helen Holt passed away in 2015 at age 101, seven months after his son retired after sixteen years in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Even more: Bill Marland, who beat Rush Holt Sr. in the 1952 gubernatorial race, lost a bid for U.S. Senate in 1956 and a Democratic primary for U.S. Senate in 1958.  He dealt with an alcohol addiction and moved to Chicago in the 1960’s, where he drove a taxicab for several years.  Around 1965, after a reporter recognized him, Marland went on national television to talk about his addiction and how it affected his family.