After two years, he worked as a tobacco salesman for Butler & Bosher, a Richmond firm.

[1][2] In the 1890s, he moved to Newport News and started S. W. Holt and Co., a wholesale grocers firm, with Arthur St. Clair Butler.

[2] Holt served as a member of the Virginia Senate, representing Elizabeth City, York, Warwick and Newport News, from 1904 to 1938.

He served as president pro tempore of the senate the last 15 years of his legislative service.

[2] Holt died on March 31, 1940, at his home on Huntington Avenue in Newport News.