Rufus C. Holman

Rufus Cecil Holman (October 14, 1877 – November 27, 1959) was an American politician and businessman who served as a United States senator for a single term during World War II. He was an officer in the Ku Klux Klan during the 1920s, then served as Oregon State Treasurer. He was a member of the Multnomah County Board of Commissioners.

Running for re-election in May 1944, Holman was defeated in the Republican primary by Wayne Morse.

Early life Holman was born in Portland, Oregon, on October 14, 1877. He was educated in public schools and became a teacher in 1896.

Career After leaving teaching in 1898, he worked in various fields from farming and operating a steamboat, to pursuits related to the accounting field until 1910. That year, Holman began making record keeping books and paper boxes in Portland.

During the mid-1920s, Holman was an active member of the Ku Klux Klan in Oregon, serving as an officer.

In 1931, Oregon Governor Julius L. Meier appointed him as state treasurer after Thomas B. Kay died in office. He began in office on May 1, 1931, winning election to a full four-year term in 1932, and winning re-election in 1936.

In 1938, he was elected to the United States Senate. As Senator, Holman was critical of the foreign policy of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, taking a strongly isolationist position which placed him on the right wing of Oregon politics. As a Senator Holman was a staunch opponent of liberalizing immigration laws to allow easier immigration by Jews and other persecuted Europeans, a position which was deeply resented by Oregon's small but politically potent Jewish population, who quickly came to view the former KKK member Holman as antisemitic and who sought his electoral defeat. While attenuating his isolationism after the December 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor, coming to support the war effort, Holman's name remained indissolubly tied with the now politically unpopular isolationist position and he faced a high-profile challenge in the May 1944 Republican primary from progressive Wayne Morse. Holman was an outspoken supporter of the internment of Japanese Americans and lobbied against their return. When this conspiratorial theory did not gain traction, Holman proffered a new theory detailing an alleged plot involving the Portland shipyards of Henry J. Kaiser were being systematically used to stack the Republican primary against him.

After his 1944 defeat, Holman returned to private life and never sought public office again. Holman returned to managing the Portland Paper Box Company in Portland, before retiring to his farm near Molalla, Oregon.

Holman's great-nephew, Ralph M. Holman, was a justice of the Oregon Supreme Court.

Electoral history

General - May 15, 1938 Candidate name Votes Rufus C. Holman (R)206,23354.7% U.S. Burt (D)161,07342.7% Don Swetland (I)9,9642.6%

Footnotes