 Holt was born in Weston, West Virginia, to Rush D. Holt (1905–1955), who served as a United States Senator from West Virginia (1935–1941), and his wife, Helen Louise Froelich Holt (1913–2015), the first woman to be appointed Secretary of State of West Virginia (1957–1959).Holt Sr. was the youngest person ever to be popularly elected to the U.S. Senate, at age 29.He died of cancer when Rush was six years old.