Andy Holt, UTM alumnus who currently serves as the state representative for District 76, proves everyday to Tennesseans that humble beginnings can’t keep you from reaching your goals if you remain true and focused.
“I grew up in south Knoxville in a small community called Bestial. [I] grew up in a poor neighborhood. … It’s so funny talking to my parents, they don’t have a clue what I’m doing,” Holt said.
Holt’s father was a plumber in Knoxville during the Butcher Bank failure of the 1980s. His father’s business came to a “screeching halt” and lost thousands of dollars in labor, tools and materials. Holt found his mother crying on the floor a few days later, because they didn’t even have enough for groceries. This served as the trigger for Holt’s desire to have something better.
“I remember telling myself as a child that I wouldn’t live like this,” Holt said.
While enrolled at Southville High School, Holt focused on industrial arts, which includes carpentry, electrical and welding, the latter of which he still does to this day. Holt also took advanced placement classes and realized for himself that he was a good student. He then took government and economics classes.
Holt chose to attend UTK for his undergraduate education and UTM for his Masters because of their proximity to where he grew up, as well as wanting a versatile degree.
Holt describes his overall college experience as excellent as he had the opportunity to meet new people, as well as being employed and involved on campus. Holt decided not to join a fraternity and stayed away from drinking.
“I didn’t have a lot of distractions in college. I was able to focus on my studies and my work. … I just worked it out,” Holt said.
Holt and his wife Ellie, a native of the Dresden area, have four children.
For Holt, success in life “boils down to [the] attitude a person takes each and every day.”
Holt currently serves as state representative for District 76, representing all of the people of Weakley County as well as portions of Carroll and Obion County. During his tenure, he has supported several bills centered on farming and animal cruelty.
“Relatively speaking, we think that they’re all important … but one that has by all means garnered the most controversy would have been Livestock Cruelty Prevention Act of 2013. … That bill was actually vetoed by the governor,” Holt said.
The bill, though vetoed by Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam, would have in theory forced anyone who sees an example of animal cruelty to contact law enforcement and then be required to submit unedited copies of photographic evidence of the animal cruelty within 48 hours.
The state representative for District 76 describes himself as a “farmer by trade” with several different contracts and farms in the Dresden area, including a contract with Tosh Farms to finish swine for them.
Other business interests that Holt has include a partnership with his wife and father-in-law on cattle and a sideline farm named Holt Farms, where the mainstay is pumpkin production.
“On some other land we have pine trees as well. We kind of joke and say that we farm the three P’s: Pigs, Pines and Pumpkins,” Holt said.
Holt firmly believes that the connections one makes in college are one of the key factors in finding a job after graduation.
“I think that’s something that all students should take into consideration in pursuing any advanced degree. It is not only the education that somebody receives but also the networking opportunities that abound as you continue to climb your way up the educational ladder,” Holt said.
Holt tells aspiring students that to be successful in life they cannot have multiple goals simultaneously, one must slow down, make a conscious effort each day to do something and write down short and long-term goals each day.
“The best advice to students I can give is [that] you can’t have 17 goals simultaneously. You have to break goals down. … Make a conscious decision, [and ask yourself], ‘Am I going to work hard or just get by?’,” Holt said.
