James B. Hunt, Jr.
Governor (D - North Carolina, 1977-1985, 1993-2001)

"Every election year you have one race that captures the imagination of the country, for better or worse.  In 1984 it was Hunt-Helms. I don’t think anybody was proud of what happened." - Larry Sabato, Political Scientist

Democrat Jim Hunt served an unprecedented four terms as North Carolina's governor from 1977-1985 and 1993-2001. In 1984, Hunt lost a bitterly contested race for the U.S. Senate seat held by Jesse Helms. While 1983 polls showed Helms trailing Hunt by almost 20%, Helms won a four-percentage-point victory over Hunt on the coattails of Republican President Ronald Reagan’s landslide 1984 reelection in which Reagan received 62% of the North Carolina vote. The 1984 Helms-Hunt race was the most expensive non-presidential race the country had ever seen, with combined spending exceeding $25 million.

Martin Luther King, Jr.
(1929-1968)
Civil Rights Activist

"Dr. King's outfit...is heavily laden at the top with leaders of proven records of communism, socialism and sex perversion, as well as other curious behavior." 
- Jesse Helms, 1963 WRAL-TV “Viewpoint” editorial

"Somehow King’s very bravado--how dare he--seemed to make Jesse [Helms] foam at the mouth. He had a sort of, it seems to me, a vendetta particularly against King as perhaps symbolizing all of the people who were crusading for civil rights." - Ernest Furgurson, Helms Biographer

Martin Luther King, Jr. was ordained in 1948 at the age of 19 at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta. He was pastor of Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama from 1954 to 1959.  In 1959, King returned to Atlanta to head the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, an organization formed to provide new leadership for the burgeoning civil rights movement. From 1960 until his death in 1968, he was co-pastor with his father at Ebenezer Baptist Church. At the age of 35, King became the youngest man to receive the Nobel Peace Prize. On the evening of April 4, 1968, King was assassinated on the balcony of his motel room in Memphis, Tennessee. In 1983, Jesse Helms led the unsuccessful opposition in the U.S. Senate to the creation of a federal holiday honoring King.

Ronald Reagan
(1911-2004)
40th President of the United States (1981-1989)

"Helms and his people at one point thought about, you know, running for president, running possibly a third political party.  And when Reagan came along, Helms said, 'This is the guy.'" - Rob Christensen, Political Reporter

In 1975, former California Governor Ronald Reagan came to Raleigh, N.C., for one of the first fundraising events held by Jesse Helms’s political action committee, the North Carolina Congressional Club.  Soon after, Helms began openly supporting Reagan for the 1976 Republican presidential nomination over incumbent President Gerald Ford.  After losing the first five primaries to Ford, Reagan made his last stand in North Carolina and handed control of his campaign to Jesse Helms, who along with ally Tom Ellis launched a hard-right assault on Ford for his moderate positions. Reagan won convincingly in North Carolina, followed by several other primary victories. Though Gerald Ford was ultimately nominated in 1976, Helms and Ellis had essentially saved Reagan’s political career. The Congressional Club gave almost $5 million to Reagan’s successful 1980 presidential campaign. Reagan’s landslide reelection in 1984 swept Helms to a narrow victory in his Senate race with Jim Hunt.