1970

A lifelong Democrat, Helms switches to the Republican Party, a decision he compares to changing religions.

1972

On February 18, A.J. Fletcher appears on WRAL-TV and says solemnly, "We have come to the end of an era."  Jesse Helms had announced his candidacy for the U.S. Senate and would take a leave of absence from the station.

Helms’s opponent is Nick Galifianakis, a liberal congressman from Durham who upset incumbent Senator Everett Jordan in the Democratic primary.  Helms and campaign manager Tom Ellis use the slogan “Jesse Helms:  He's one of us!” which critics see as an ethnic slur on the Galifianakis’s Greek name.

Richard Nixon carries North Carolina with a landslide 70% of the vote.  Jesse Helms rides his coattails with 54%, becoming the first Republican since Reconstruction elected to the U.S. Senate from North Carolina, where registered Democrats outnumber Republicans four to one.

1973

Days after Helms is sworn in, the Supreme Court issues its Roe v. Wade ruling legalizing abortion.  Although Republicans are in the minority in both houses of Congress, Helms succeeds in restricting foreign aid funds for population control programs that include abortion.  He filibusters against continuing federal legal aid to the poor, opposes food stamps, and opposes amnesty for so-called "draft dodgers."  Conservative Republicans establish the Republican Steering Committee, which becomes known as “the Helms gang.” 

1974

Helms objects to the Republican Party’s attempt to become more moderate after Nixon’s resignation in August.  He threatens to nominate Ronald Reagan or George Wallace in 1976 if President Gerald Ford doesn’t run on a rigidly conservative platform.

1975

Carter Wrenn becomes director of the North Carolina Congressional Club, a political action committee founded by Tom Ellis after Helms’s 1972 election to retire his campaign debt.  The Congressional Club hires Richard Viguerie to raise money using his pioneering direct mail technique.

Ronald Reagan comes to Raleigh in July for one of the Congressional Club’s first fundraising events.  Helms begins openly supporting Reagan over Ford for the 1976 Republican nomination.  He becomes Reagan’s North Carolina campaign chairman and is mentioned as a possible running mate. 

1976

Having lost the first five Republican primaries to Ford, Reagan makes a last stand in North Carolina by handing control of his campaign to Jesse Helms and Tom Ellis, who launch a hard-right assault on Ford for his moderate positions.  Reagan wins convincingly in North Carolina, followed by several other primary victories.  

Though Ford is nominated, both Reagan and Helms receive enthusiastic receptions at the Republican convention in Kansas City.  Helms forces tough stances into the Republican platform, and leaves the convention as the acknowledged leader of the growing conservative movement known as “The New Right.”

Democrat Jimmy Carter, a Southern Baptist, defeats Ford for the presidency.  Moderate Democrat Jim Hunt is elected governor of North Carolina.

1977

Helms leads the unsuccessful fight against the Panama Canal treaties, which are ultimately ratified by the Senate in 1980. 

1978

Helms and the Congressional Club use the Panama Canal and hot-button social issues to raise over $8 million, more than any Senate candidate to date, for Helms’s reelection campaign.  Much of the money comes from 300,000 out-of-state donors responding to direct mail appeals.  Helms defeats Democrat John Ingram, the populist state insurance commissioner, with 55% of the vote.

In the late ‘70s and early ‘80s, Helms's Senate aides and political allies create a network of nonprofit foundations in both Raleigh and Washington, including the Coalition for Freedom, the Institute of American Relations, the American Family Institute, the Center for a Free Society, and the Institute on Money and Inflation.  Like the Congressional Club, the institutes raise money through direct mail, though contributions to most of the institutes are tax-deductible.

1979

Helms fights against the SALT II treaty, as he would future arms treaties.  He blocks the nominations of dozens of Carter’s diplomatic appointees he considers too soft on communism.

Helms and Tom Ellis lead efforts to mobilize Christian conservative voters, including advising Reverend Jerry Falwell in creating the Moral Majority.