James H. Boyce

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James Harvey "Jimmy" Boyce, Sr. (October 6, 1922 - May 15, 1990), was a Baton Rouge businessman and a pioneer in the development of the Republican Party in Louisiana. He served as state party chairman from 1972 to 1976.

Boyce was born in Carrollton, Missouri, to Clarence George Boyce and the former Nora Clark, both natives of Iowa. Clarence Boyce did levee construction work along the Mississippi River and relocated his family to Baton Rouge. Young Boyce graduated from Baton Rouge High School and Culver Military Academy in Culver, Indiana. He also attended Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge for a year.

He served as a pilot in the United States Navy from 1942-1943. Boyce married the former June Thibaut (born September 11, 1921), a native of the village of Napoleonville, the seat of Assumption Parish in south Louisiana, and a graduate of Randolph-Macon Woman's College in Lynchburg, Virginia, where her great-aunt was on the faculty. June's parents were Bronier Lastrapes Thibaut and the former Katherine Rice.

Boyce became well-known in Baton Rouge business and professional circles as the city's Caterpillar Company dealer, a position from which he retired in 1984. He sat on many civic boards, including the Baton Rouge Airport Commission, National Bank Board, Junior Achievement, the Better Business Bureau, and the National Alliance of Business, a creation of the administration of U.S. President Richard M. Nixon, whom Boyce supported for the White House. Boyce was also involved in philanthropic endeavors and was a benefactor of the Baton Rouge Area Foundation.

Like most Louisiana Republicans, Boyce was originally a Democrat. Voter registrars often advised new registrants to remain within the Democratic fold or be unable to vote in competitive races except for U.S. president, constitutional amendment elections, or tax referenda. Therefore, the Democratic registration as late as 1960 was often in excess of 98 or 99 percent. In 1963, while still a nominal Democrat, Boyce went with a group of mostly Republican conservatives to urge then U.S. Senator Barry M. Goldwater of Arizona to seek the presidency in 1964. Goldwater was at first reluctant to take on the challenge but nevertheless declared his candidacy early in 1964, when the Democrat Lyndon B. Johnson had been president for only two months and the favorite for a full term of his own.

Boyce switched parties to work for the gubernatorial election of his friend, Charlton Havard Lyons, Sr., of Shreveport, the seat of Caddo Parish, in northwestern Louisiana. Mrs. Boyce recalled that her husband and herself "idolized" Lyons for his character, integrity, and determination to begin the process of making Louisiana a two-party state. Boyce was Lyons' campaign treasurer. He and Mrs. Boyce attended Republican National Conventions held in San Francisco in 1964 and in Miami Beach in both 1968 and 1972.

Boyce was elected state chairman with Lyons' support. He succeeded the Lafayette businessman Charles Camille de Gravelles, Jr., and served for four years in the post. The Louisiana GOP made no headway in statewide campaigns under Boyce's tutelage, other than participating in the 49-state sweep for Nixon. The state Republicans lost only in West Feliciana Parish in the 1972 Nixon reelection. However, the still fledgling party captured its first two seats in the United States House of Representatives since Reconstruction, with the election of David Conner Treen in 1972 in the New Orleans suburbs and William Henson Moore in a 1975 special election, which was a rerun of the regular November 1974 general election in the Baton Rouge district.

Boyce said that Louisiana Republicans were "so badly outnumbered that we can't find enough candidates to run in local elections," a problem that still plagued the party early in the 21st Century. Boyce said that his party may have won more legislative seats in the general election held on February 1, 1972, had Republican located more competitive candidates in districts receptive to a two-party message. Boyce said that the party could not find a suitable candidate to challenge U.S. Senator Russell B. Long in 1974, who faced only the minor opposition of Insurance Commissioner Sherman A. Bernard of Jefferson Parish. Boyce said that he discouraged finding "sacrificial lamb" candidates or "going through the motions of running. The candidate's feelings get hurt. We have to have a good candidate and financing for him." In the fall of 1974, Boyce said that Louisiana Republicans would not be hurt by the Watergate scandal because it had "so little to lose." But Watergate would cause missed opportunities for southern Republicans. Therefore, the reelection of Treen to Congress in 1974 and the victory of Moore in 1975 were shots in the arm to Boyce.

Boyce was Episcopalian. There are three Boyce sons: James, Jr. (born 1943), John Clark (born 1945) and Jerry Thibaut (born 1950). In 2007, there were eight grandchildren and thirteen great-grandchildren. Mrs. Boyce turned eighty on the day of the September 11, 2001, attacks in New York City, Pennsylvania, and Washington, D.C.

Preceded by Charles Camille de Gravelles, Jr., of Lafayette	Louisiana Republican State Chairman James Harvey "Jimmy" Boyce, Sr., of Baton Rouge 1972–1976	Succeeded by John Hamilton Cade, Jr., of Alexandria