James Eubert Holshouser Jr. (October 8, 1934 – June 17, 2013) was an American lawyer and politician who served as the 68th governor of North Carolina from 1973 to 1977. He was the first Republican candidate to be elected as governor of the state since 1896. Born in Boone, North Carolina, Holshouser initially sought to become a sports journalist before deciding to pursue a law degree. While in law school he developed an interest in politics and in 1962 he was elected to the North Carolina House of Representatives where he focused on restructuring government and higher education institutions, and drug abuse legislation. Made chairman of the North Carolina Republican Party in March 1966, he established the organization's first permanent staff and gained prominence by opposing a cigarette tax.
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. Inaugurated in January 1973, he fired many incumbent state employees to accommodate the awarding of patronage to hundreds of Republicans who had been unable to work in the state administration under Democratic control, appointed the first woman in a cabinet-level position in the state's history, and enacted hundreds of cost-cutting measures. Though not empowered with veto power and facing a Democrat-dominated legislature, he cultivated a working relationship with Lieutenant Governor Jim Hunt. Together, they backed the expansion of the state's kindergarten program and environmental legislation and unsuccessfully pursued the ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment. Holshouser governed as a pragmatic centrist, and his control over the state Republican organization was undermined by conservative supporters of U.S. Senator Jesse Helms. Leaving office in January 1977, he practiced law in Southern Pines and served on the University of North Carolina Board of Governors before dying in 2013.
James Eubert Holshouser Jr. was born on October 8, 1934, in Boone, North Carolina, United States, to James E. Holshouser and Virginia Dayvault Holshouser. His 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. His mother was a registered member of the Democratic Party, though she eventually left the party before becoming a Republican in 1972. People in Watauga County described the Holshouser family as "good livers", meaning they lived comfortably and had respectable social standing. James Jr. was a sickly child and suffered from asthma and periodic afflictions of pneumonia, preventing him from pursuing an interest in sports.
Holshouser enrolled at Appalachian High School in 1948. He served as senior class president (he was elected unopposed), editor of the school newspaper, and was a member of the National Honor Society. Graduating in June 1952, he attended Davidson College for undergraduate studies, majoring in history. He edited the school newspaper, wrote for the yearbook, and was a member of a fraternity, a literary society, and the international relations club. He strongly considered becoming a sports writer, and during his senior year he worked on the sports section of The Charlotte Observer. He 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. He 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. He subsequently joined his father's law practice in Boone and married Patricia Hollingsworth on June 17, 1961. They had one daughter, Virginia, born in 1963.
Though politics was a "casual part of life" in his household while growing up, Holshouser paid little interest in pursuing a political career for much of his early life. He grew more interested in public affairs while at law school, particularly in court reform. During this time he began attending sessions of the North Carolina General Assembly. In 1962 he was elected chairman of the Watauga County Young Republicans.
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. He was sworn in on February 7, 1963. Throughout his tenure he focused on restructuring government and higher education institutions, and drug abuse legislation. He became the Republican floor leader in the House in 1965, thus becoming the highest-ranking Republican public official in the state. Skipping the 1967 session, he returned to the House in 1969. Made chairman of the North Carolina Republican Party in March 1966, Holshouser directed Republican Richard Nixon's 1968 presidential campaign in North Carolina and rose to statewide prominence the following year when he opposed Governor Robert W. Scott's plan to tax cigarettes. He also established the party organization's first permanent staff. He retired from the party chairmanship in November 1971 to focus on a gubernatorial campaign in 1972. One of his friends, Harry S. Dent Sr., offered to help him get appointed as general counsel for the United States Navy, but he turned the offer down.
Holshouser declared his candidacy for the office of Governor of North Carolina in the 1972 election on November 15, 1971. Suffering from kidney disease, he ran in spite of his doctor's concerns about his health. In the Republican primary he faced Jim Gardner, a conservative U.S. Representative who hailed from eastern North Carolina and had run as the Republican candidate in 1968. Holshouser focused his campaign on the traditionally Republican counties in the mountainous west and the urban Piedmont. Gardner won the first primary by a small margin, 84,906 votes to Holshouser's 83,637, while minor candidates took 2,040 votes. Holshouser called for a runoff, and in the second round voter participation dropped, giving Holshouser a victory by 1,782 votes.
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. Despite the reservations of his wife, he authorized the broadcasting of an ad declaring his opposition to desegregation busing at the encouragement of his media consultant, Roger Ailes. He 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. Holshouser led in the traditionally-Republican mountain and western Piedmont counties, while also gaining a majority in the Charlotte, Winston-Salem, Raleigh, and Wilmington metro areas. He performed well among women and younger voters, while also appealing more to black voters than more conservative Republicans such as Gardner and U.S. Senator Jesse Helms. Bowles had also been harmed by a fractious primary. Both Republicans and Democrats generally considered Holshouser's victory a "fluke". He was inaugurated on January 5, 1973. At age 38, he was the state's youngest governor since the 19th century and the first Republican governor since Daniel Lindsay Russell was elected in 1896.
Holshouser lacked executive experience upon assuming gubernatorial office, and had a tendency to react to others' proposals rather than create his own. Upon taking office, he fired many incumbent state employees to accommodate the awarding of patronage to hundreds of Republicans who had been unable to work in the state administration under Democratic control; 100 employees in the Department of Transportation were removed. Holshouser's first executive order established the Governor's Efficiency Study Commission. After months of study the board recommended 700 cost-cutting measures, including five-year license plates, use of compact cars by state agencies, and centralized printing services. Holshouser's administration adopted about 600 of the suggestions, and he later estimated that the changes saved the state government $80 million annually. Holshouser also 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.