Rush D. Holt senior

Rush D. Holt

Rush Dew Holt Sr. (born June 19, 1905 in Weston , Lewis County , West Virginia , †  February 8, 1955 in Bethesda , Maryland ) was an American politician who represented the state of West Virginia in the US Senate .

Life

After attending school, Rush Holt first studied at West Virginia University in Morgantown before graduating from Salem in 1924 . He then worked as a teacher and athletic trainer at a high school; later he was a lecturer at Salem College and the State Teachers' College in Glenville .

From 1931 to 1935, Democrat Holt sat in the West Virginia House of Representatives . After he was elected US Senator in November 1934, he should normally have taken this seat in January 1935, but since he was less than 30 years old at the time, he did not move into until after his birthday on June 21 of the same year enter Congress . At the time of his election, Holt was considered a supporter of President Franklin D. Roosevelt and could be sure of the support of the UMW miners' union . As he took office, however, his political views seemed to change: he became a critic of Roosevelt's New Deal and lost the union's support.

Holt, who was also a staunch isolationist and campaigned against the United States' entry into World War II , was not re-elected by the Democrats in 1940 for the Senate election, so his term ended on January 3, 1941. From 1942 to 1950 he was again a member of the parliament of his home state, in which he applied unsuccessfully for the democratic nomination for the office of governor in 1944 . In 1948 he failed again when trying to become a Democratic Senate candidate. Holt then changed his party affiliation and joined the Republicans in 1949 . This nominated him in 1950 for election to the US House of Representatives and in 1952 as governor, but he was defeated in both cases. In 1954 he was re-elected to the West Virginia House of Representatives, where he remained until his death the following year.

His son Rush also became a politician. He is a Democrat and sits in the House of Representatives in Washington as an MP from New Jersey .

Web links

• Rush D. Holt in the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress (English)

• Rush D. Holt senior in the database of Find a Grave (English)