Nate Holden, La Democrat with a Cameo in 2024 Presidential Race, dies on 95

Nate Holden, a democrat known for his bombast and populist politics, who served for 16 years in the Los Angeles city council and had a cameo in the presidential race of 2024, when Donald J. Trump confused him with another black civil servant of California, Willie Brown, died in Santa on Wednesday. He was 95.

His death, in a hospital, was confirmed by his son Christopher, a former member of the state meeting and mayor of Pasadena.

Mr. Trump told reporters in August about making an almost fatal helicopter trip with Mr. Brown, the former mayor of San Francisco, in which he claimed that Mr. Brown told him ‘terrible things’ about vice-president Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominated.

Mr. Brown fiercely denied on such a flight. It turned out that Mr. Trump’s passenger was very likely to have the Lord, who said reporters that he and Mr Trump had flown to Atlantic City in a helicopter around 1990, when mechanical problems forced an emergency landing.

In one Interview with the New York TimesMr. Holden said he had called Mr. Brown when he heard Mr. Trump.

“I said,” Willie, you know what? That’s me! “He remembered. “And I said to him,” You are a short black guy, and I am a long black guy – but we all look alike, right? “

Mr Holden’s pronounced was typical of a long career in the politics of Los Angeles, in which he was known to estimate his attention and collisions with fellow democrats, and for providing services to economic struggle in South Los Angeles.

He served one term in the Senate of the State and four in the city council. He sought a higher office without success and lost several races for the congress and the mayor of Los Angeles.

Mr. Holden was attracted by the spotlights and to controversies. During his 1989 run for mayor, who challenged a popular sitting, Tom Bradley, he offered to buy attack rifles from the street for $ 300 each, using campaign funds. The then-novel return plan has received national attention.

A decade later, while running a final term in the city council, he claimed that Mr. Bradley had endorsed him to his deathbed in the previous year. A daughter of Mr. Bradley’s and former Bradley assistants Skepticism pronouncedBecause the two men had been bitter enemies.

Mr Holden represented the predominantly black 10th district, a seat in South Los Angeles that Mr. Bradley had held when he was elected in 1963 as the first black councilor of the city. Mr. Holden won the chair when he defeated Mr. Bradley’s chosen candidate in 1987.

He earned the loyalty of voters to fight to repair gaps, to paint over graffiti and to increase the police patrols. He destroyed city managers in public and followed street sweepers to ensure that they did their work.

At the same time, he was combative in council meetings and often the only opponent of popular measures. In 2002 he was the only mood against William J. Bratton as police chief, who considered his colleagues as grand -like.

When Mr. Holden resigned in 2003 because of term limits, a columnist wrote for the Los Angeles Times, Patt Morrison, that the city had “lost a 16-year-old franchise about disability, show boating and Chutzpah.”

Nathan Nathaniel Holden was born on July 19, 1929 in Macon, Ga. His father, James Holden, was a Brakeman on a railway. His parents divorced when Nate was 10, and he moved with his mother, Hilda Holden, to Elizabeth, NJ in 1946, he lied over his age – he was 16 – so that he could join the army. After the Second World War he served in the military police in Europe.

When he returned to the United States, he studied Engineering at the night school and was hired by Hughes Aircraft Company in South California; He worked in the space industry for almost two decades.

After having lost the races for the congress twice, he was chosen in the Senate of California in 1974. But instead of looking for a second term, he again ran in vain for the congress in 1978.

The marriage of Mr Holden with Fannie Louise (Mays) Holden ended in divorce. She died in 2013. In addition to his son Christopher, he is survived by another son, Reginald; A daughter, Melissa Hill; Eight grandchildren; And four great -grandchildren.

Mr Holden was in his living room last year and looked at a press conference in Mar-A-Lago, when a reporter Mr Trump asked a leading question about whether Willie Brown, the prominent Californian Democrat, had stimulated Mrs. Harris’s political career. (The two were dated in the mid -nineties.)

“Well, I know Willie Brown very well,” Mr. Trump replied. “In fact, I went with him in a helicopter.”

A surprised Mr. Holden called Mr. Brown to ask if they had both taken almost fatal helicopter flights with Mr. Trump, and Mr. Brown said he had never done that before. But Mr. Trump later doubled and said he had “escape records” for the trip and Threatening to sue time To report that Mr. Brown had not been on board.

Then the Lord popped up publicly. He said he had been in the New York meeting with Mr. Trump years ago about plans to redevelop a hotel in Los Angeles. Mr. Trump wanted to show him one of his casinos in Atlantic City, but the helicopter soon got into trouble.

While the crew worked frantically to land safely, Mr. Holden told The Times, he thought of a generally reported 1989 helicopter crash That had killed three managers who worked for the Lord Trump.

“I just thought, what the hell do you let your staff maintain your plane after you had just had a crash that killed some of your staff?” he said. “How could you let this happen again?”

The helicopter that he and Mr. Trump were ended up safely in Linden, NJ, said Mr. Holden.