52 Facts About James Holshouser

James Holshouser was the first Republican candidate to be elected as governor of the state since 1896.

James Holshouser ran for the office of Governor of North Carolina in 1972, winning the Republican nomination and narrowly defeating his Democratic opponent in the general election.

James Holshouser governed as a pragmatic centrist, and his control over the state Republican organization was undermined by conservative supporters of US Senator Jesse Helms.

James Holshouser's father was an active member of the Republican Party who attended party meetings and served on the North Carolina State Board of Elections and as a United States Attorney under President Dwight Eisenhower.

James Holshouser's mother was a registered member of the Democratic Party, though she eventually left the party before becoming a Republican in 1972.

James Holshouser served as senior class president, editor of the school newspaper, and was a member of the National Honor Society.

James Holshouser edited the school newspaper, wrote for the yearbook, and was a member of a fraternity, a literary society, and the international relations club.

James Holshouser strongly considered becoming a sports writer, and during his senior year he worked on the sports section of The Charlotte Observer.

James Holshouser later figured making a career out of sports would cause him to tire of them, so he decided to do what his father had done and become a lawyer.

James Holshouser graduated from Davidson College in 1956 and enrolled at the University of North Carolina School of Law in September 1957, earning his law degree in 1960.

James Holshouser subsequently joined his father's law practice in Boone and married Patricia Hollingsworth on June 17,1961.

James Holshouser grew more interested in public affairs while at law school, particularly in court reform.

James Holshouser was elected in November 1962 to the North Carolina House of Representatives representing Watauga County, campaigning on a platform of court reform, low taxes, and creating an automobile inspection law.

James Holshouser became the Republican floor leader in the House in 1965, thus becoming the highest-ranking Republican public official in the state.

James Holshouser retired from the party chairmanship in November 1971 to focus on a gubernatorial campaign in 1972.

James Holshouser declared his candidacy for the office of Governor of North Carolina in the 1972 election on November 15,1971.

James Holshouser focused his campaign on the traditionally Republican counties in the mountainous west and the urban Piedmont.

James Holshouser called for a runoff, and in the second round voter participation dropped, giving James Holshouser a victory by 1,782 votes.

James Holshouser campaigned on a platform of raising teachers' salaries, reducing class sizes, expanding the public kindergarten program, building new roads, supporting a war on drugs, and opposing taxes on gasoline and tobacco.

James Holshouser narrowly defeated Democrat Skipper Bowles in the general election, 767,470 votes to 729,104, likely benefitting from the coattails of Republican Richard Nixon's large victory in North Carolina in the presidential election.

James Holshouser led in the traditionally-Republican mountain and western Piedmont counties, while gaining a majority in the Charlotte, Winston-Salem, Raleigh, and Wilmington metro areas.

James Holshouser performed well among women and younger voters, while appealing more to black voters than more conservative Republicans such as Gardner and US Senator Jesse Helms.

James Holshouser lacked executive experience upon assuming gubernatorial office, and had a tendency to react to others' proposals rather than create his own.

James Holshouser's administration adopted about 600 of the suggestions, and he later estimated that the changes saved the state government $80 million annually.

James Holshouser pursued a much more active role in the state budgeting process than his predecessors, regularly attending and presiding over sessions of the Advisory Budget Commission.

James Holshouser issued a total of 21 executive orders during his tenure.

James Holshouser declined to use the governor's office in the North Carolina State Capitol aside from ceremonial purposes.

James Holshouser appointed Grace Rohrer as Commissioner of the Department of Art, History and Culture, the first woman in a cabinet-level position in the state's history, and designated a special assistant for minority affairs.

James Holshouser appointed a commission to raise money to restore the Old Main building at Pembroke State University following its destruction by fire.

James Holshouser publicly supported the federally-backed planned community of Soul City to improve economic opportunity for blacks and boost minority electoral support for Republicans.

James Holshouser led a trade delegation to Moscow in September 1973.

James Holshouser filled two vacancies on the North Carolina Court of Appeals and four on the North Carolina Superior Court.

James Holshouser enjoyed a good working relationship with Lieutenant Governor Jim Hunt, who held sway in the legislature, and during their first two years in office they minimized partisanship in dealing with each other.

James Holshouser came into office when North Carolina had a $265 million budget surplus, which enabled him to fulfill some of his campaign promises.

James Holshouser consulted Hunt on budget proposals and incorporated Hunt's plan to expand kindergarten in the state educational system in his January 1973 budget.

James Holshouser's budget expanded funding for state parks and he worked with Hunt to create the Coastal Area Management Act to control development along the Eastern Seaboard.

James Holshouser supported a similar bill for mountain regions, but failed to secure the support of Republican legislators to pass it.

New legislative proposals from James Holshouser decreased after the state's budgetary situation tightened in 1975.

James Holshouser governed as a pragmatic centrist, and his control over the state party was tenuous.

Republican Party chairman Frank Rouse, a conservative who had supported Gardner and Helms, visited James Holshouser to ask him to fire Anderson.

Helms supported the more conservative Ronald Reagan, who James Holshouser publicly appealed to, to drop out of the race, to preserve party unity.

James Holshouser was booed when he addressed the state Republican convention.

James Holshouser attended the national convention anyway, but did not sit with the North Carolina delegation.

Legally restricted to one term, James Holshouser was succeeded by Hunt as governor on January 8,1977.

James Holshouser secured a pilot's license and flew a Cessna 172 between the two locales.

James Holshouser worked for several years as the official attorney of the Moore County Board of Commissioners.

James Holshouser was elected to the Board of Governors of the University of North Carolina in 1979, and later served as a member emeritus.

James Holshouser served on the Boards of St Andrews Presbyterian College in Laurinburg and Davidson College.

James Holshouser joined with Hunt and former governor Terry Sanford in 1977 in supporting the amending of the North Carolina Constitution to allow gubernatorial succession.

James Holshouser served as Gardner's legislative liaison while the latter was lieutenant governor.

James Holshouser served on Pat McCrory's political transition team after the latter was elected governor.

James Holshouser died on the morning of June 17,2013, at First Health of the Carolinas Medical Center in Pinehurst following a decline in his health.