A man of the people

Former U.S. Congressman and chairman of the Louisiana Public Service Commission Clyde Holloway was laid to rest on Saturday.
Holloway died at his home in Forest Hill on Sunday, October 16 at the age of 72 due to complications from pneumonia. A funeral service was held on the festival grounds in his hometown on Saturday. After a private burial, a reception was held at Forest Hill Town Hall where the public came to pay their respect to a man who was involved in politics for the past three-plus decades.
“He was a very good man,” former Ville Platte Mayor Bill Jeanmard said. “He was always interested in the community and helping the people in Evangeline Parish. I don’t think he really looked at people based on party lines. He just wanted to help.”
“Clyde Holloway was a great public servant,” said Ville Platte Mayor Jennifer Vidrine, who worked with Holloway during her time as Assitiant Executive Director of the Evangeline Community Action Agency. “He was wonderful to work with. He was a very nice man. He always worked hard for the people of Evangeline Parish. We will miss his service.”
Holloway first came on the political scene in 1980 when he opposed a federal busing order which he felt would shut down Forest Hill Elementary School. That same year he ran for Congress for what would be the first of 11 total major campaigns.
Holloway won his first election when he was voted to the U.S. House of Representatives for District 8 (which served Evangeline Parish) in 1986 and then was reelected again in 1988 and 1990. Holloway was the first and last Republican to serve that district.
After District 8 was eliminated due to reapportionment in 1993, Holloway ran for the District 6 seat but lost in a runoff and then ran unsuccessful campaigns for District 7 in 1994 and then for the District 5 seat in 1996, 2002, 2013 and 2014.
Holloway also ran for governor in 1991 but finished fourth and failed to make the runoff between Edwin Edwards and David Duke. He also ran unsuccesfully for lieutenant governor in 2003, which was won by Mitch Landrieu.
The well-known fiscal and social conservative lawmaker would serve as Louisiana’s state director for the Office of Rural Development in the U.S. Department of Agriculture from 2006 to 2009, before running and winning a special election to become Louisiana’s PSC in 2009. Holloway was re-elected unoppossed in 2010 but had opted not to seek reelection this November citing his health.
Holloway, who also ran a successful nursery, was also a former member of the Louisiana Republican State Central Committee.
“A true public servant, Clyde spent his life advocating on behalf of the state and people he loved,” Gov. Jon Bel Edwards said in a statement. “From the time that he began his career in his beloved hometown of Forest Hill, to representing Louisiana’s 8th Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives, and then ultimately serving as chairman of the Louisiana Public Service Commission, he always remained accessible and a powerful voice for his constituents.”
Holloway was known as someone who would sit down and listen to other lawmakers or even citizens, who didn’t always share his same poltical beliefs.
“You could always call him and he would always pick up the phone,” Jeanmard said. “We didn’t agree all the time but he would always listen to your point. He took the time to explain his position with you and not yell over you or dismiss you. That is something I always appreciated and respected about him.”