By Miles Layton

Joe Hollowell, 85, a former Chowan County Commissioner and one of northeastern North Carolina’s most enduring political figures, died Sunday morning.

I knew Joe – everyone knew Joe.

Joe called the house often to give me advice and news tips about the coming and goings of elected leaders and how the issues might play out, especially in Chowan County. He was a good guy, and he will be missed. As the news of Hollowell’s passing begins to settle, I’ll put together more of a tribute piece to his life. Details on funeral arrangements and such are still being finalized.

Hollowell’s public life spanned decades and touched nearly every level of local and regional government and civic life. In 1976-77, he served as the 40th president of the North Carolina Jaycees. He later served on the Chowan County Board of Commissioners and held leadership roles with the Albemarle Commission, the regional council of governments representing northeastern North Carolina. Records from the Albemarle-Pamlico estuarine program show he was serving simultaneously as a county commissioner and chairman of the Albemarle Commission Regional Council of Governments when he joined an Albemarle citizens advisory committee in 1989.

His public service continued into his final weeks. On Aug. 26, Hollowell was sworn in to the North Carolina Coastal Resources Commission, adding a state-level appointment to a resume already built on decades of regional and local involvement.

Even as he stepped back from formal roles, Hollowell remained a fixture at regional political gatherings. Just last November, he served as master of ceremonies at a campaign event hosted by the Pasquotank PAC in Elizabeth City, where Republican candidates for the North Carolina General Assembly met with local voters at the home of PAC Executive Board member Dr. Timothy Witwer. Widely known across the region and regarded by many as a kind of godfather of local politics, Hollowell opened the evening by framing it as both political and personal.

“I mean, we tell old stories that people don’t even believe when we tell them. But it’s the truth,” he told the crowd, drawing laughs before turning serious. “We came here tonight to talk about people running for office, to have the opportunity to come together and fellowship and get to know one another well is the main thing. And I think that has definitely, definitely happened.”

He used the moment to remind the room of what he saw as the weight of public service. “When people offer themselves for service, and we have to remember that, that’s what they are doing, offering themselves for service. And if they don’t serve, you know what? It’s up to us to kick their butt out.”

Introducing retired Superior Court Judge Jerry Tillett, then a candidate for the open NC Senate District 1 seat who was recently appointed to fill that seat, Hollowell recalled his late mother’s assessment of the man: “My mama told me one time that he is a good guy. And I really like him.”

For nearly ten years, Hollowell was also a fixture of Republican Party organizing in Chowan County, calling the county’s GOP convention to order and serving as convention chairman not only there but in neighboring Lenoir and Pasquotank counties as well. In March, in the overflow chambers of Edenton Town Hall, he gaveled in the Chowan County convention for what he announced would be the last time.

“I have been chairing meetings for several years,” Hollowell told those assembled that night. “It has been an honor and a privilege on my part to be able to do it. And I thank you for the opportunity. But this is my last year.”

With the exception of one year, Hollowell had chaired the county convention for roughly nine years, a tenure during which he watched the local Republican Party grow from a fringe presence into a real political force. He often spoke of a time when Republicans in Edenton were rare enough to draw stares.

“When I grew up, there wasn’t any such thing as a Republican,” he liked to say. “They walked down the street and people were like, ‘Hey, that’s a Republican.’”

Hollowell traced the party’s rise in North Carolina to a handful of figures he considered pivotal — Richard Nixon’s presidential campaign, U.S. Sen. Jesse Helms, and political strategists Tom Ellis and Carter Wrenn — crediting them with breaking open a state that had been solidly Democratic for generations. He recalled that, in the earlier era, a Democratic registration was practically a requirement for anyone hoping to hold local office.

Hollowell’s friendship with Helms dated to their college years, when Hollowell was a member of the Farmhouse Fraternity and Helms hosted a radio commentary program called “Viewpoint” on WRAL. When Helms prepared to launch his first U.S. Senate campaign, he recruited Hollowell personally to help him in Chowan County — despite Hollowell’s registration as a Democrat at the time.

That campaign captured 47 percent of the vote — closer than any Republican had come in North Carolina up to that point — and, in Hollowell’s telling, marked the beginning of the state’s long realignment toward the GOP.

Hollowell was especially proud of how far the Chowan County GOP had come. He remembered the first county convention he attended — just 15 people at the public service center — and the steady growth that followed, eventually reaching 168 people at the 2022 convention. Only Onslow County, with some twenty times as many registered Republicans as Chowan, drew a bigger crowd that year.

Even then, he urged the party not to grow complacent. “We can sit here and say all we want that we’ve got it made, things are going great, but they’re not,” he said in March. “If we don’t get our act together and get this apathetic feeling out of people’s minds, and they come out and vote, we’re going to get our clock cleaned come November. Just keep that in mind.”

More to come.

Gallery — click to enlarge