Jesse Helms
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Jesse Alexander Helms (born October 18, 1921) is a former five-term Republican U.S. Senator from North Carolina.
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Family and Education
Helms was born in 1921 in Monroe, North Carolina, where his father, called "Big Jesse," served as chief of police. The younger Helms is married to the former Dorothy Jane ("Dot") Coble of Raleigh. He is the father of three children: Jane (Mrs. Charles R. Knox), Nancy (Mrs. John Stuart) of Raleigh and Charles of Winston-Salem, and has seven grandchildren.
Helms attended Wingate (NC) Junior College and Wake Forest College. He also holds honorary Doctor of Law degrees from many universities including, Bob Jones University, Grove City College, Campbell University, and Wingate University.
Early Career
Helms's first full time job out of college was as a sports reporter with the Raleigh News and Observer. Here he met Dorothy Coble, who was the News and Observer's society reporter. They married in 1942. During World War II Helms served stateside as a recruiter in the United States Navy. After the war, he pursued his twin interests, journalism and politics (at this time, within the Democratic Party). Helms became the city news editor of The Raleigh Times, and would later move on to radio and television.
Helms was an "unofficial" researcher for conservative Democrat Willis Smith, whose 1950 U.S. Senate primary campaign is still considered one of the meanest and most racially divisive in the country's history. After the election, Senator Smith hired Helms to be his administrative assistant in Washington.
In 1952, Helms worked on the presidential campaign of Senator Richard B. Russell, Jr. of Georgia, who was seeking the Democratic nomination. From 1953 through 1960, Helms was Executive Director of the North Carolina Bankers Association. He went on to become the Executive Vice President, Vice Chairman of the Board and assistant Chief Executive Officer of Raleigh-based Capitol Broadcasting Company, from 1960 until his election to the Senate.
Meanwhile, Helms ran for and won a seat on the Raleigh City Council in 1957, serving for four years.
Helms became famous as a conservative commentator through his daily editorials on Capitol Broadcasting Company's WRAL-TV and the Tobacco Radio Network. His editorials were broadcast by more than 70 radio stations in North Carolina and were reprinted regularly in more than 200 newspapers throughout the United States.
During his broadcasts, Helms routinely editorialized on topics such as the "Communist infiltration of the civil rights movement."
After working behind the scenes of the unsuccessful 1960 Democratic gubernatorial campaign of I. Beverly Lake, Sr., Helms drifted away from the Democratic Party and became a Republican.
Senate Career
In 1972, Helms ran for and won a seat in the United States Senate, defeating Nick Galifianakis. During the campaign Helms played up Galifianakis’ ethnicity with a slogan of “Helms: He’s One of Us.” Benefitting from Richard Nixon's landslide re-election, Helms became the first Republican elected to the U.S. Senate from North Carolina in the twentieth century. In 1978, he successfully defended his seat against state Insurance Commissioner John Ingram. In 1984, in one of the most bitter and expensive contests in North Carolina history, Helms barely retained his seat, defeating Governor Jim Hunt by a close margin. In 1990 and in 1996, Helms won against African-American Harvey Gantt, who had been mayor of Charlotte, North Carolina. The 1990 campaign included the infamous "white hands" television ad, in which the hands of a white man crumple a rejection letter while a voice-over says, "You needed that job and you were best qualified. But they had to give it to a racial minority because of a racial quota" supported, according to the ad, by Gantt.
As a senator, Helms became one of the leaders of the increasingly influential conservative movement within the Republican Party, giving Ronald Reagan crucial support in 1976 that paved the way for Reagan to be elected president in 1980. Indeed, to many, Helms was the symbol of the "far Right" and the "Christian Right" in American politics, and claims that Helms was a racist followed him throughout his career. (other Southern Senators of Helm's generation like Sen. J. Strom Thurmond and Fritz Hollings of South Carolina and John C. Stennis of Mississippi finally made overtures to blacks.)
While representing North Carolina in Washington for more than 28 years, Helms was known for his constituent services, whether it was helping grandma find her lost Social Security check or speeding up a passport application for a businessman. Helms was also a consistent champion for North Carolina industry; he fought to protect declining industries such as tobacco and textiles and was an ally of growth industries such as banking and pharmaceuticals.
He gained notoriety for controversial comments about homosexuals, the AIDS crisis, and funding from the National Endowment for the Arts for Robert Mapplethorpe. Toward the end of his career, he admitted he had been wrong to oppose AIDS research. Helms was also widely perceived as being hostile to African-Americans, particularly in opposing the federal holiday honoring Martin Luther King, Jr.. Helms became chairman of the Senate Agriculture Committee in the 1980s, and was one of Big Tobacco's chief defenders in Congress. Tobacco companies such as RJ Reynolds and Philip Morris have supported him, including giving generously to his Jesse Helms Center at Wingate University. The center was founded in 1987 to promote his views and which currently offers a lecture series.
When Republicans regained control of Congress after the 1994 elections, Helms became chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. In that role, he pushed for reform of the United Nations and blocked payment of U.N. dues by the United States to get his way.
Particularly as he gained seniority and clout, Helms became known as "Senator No" because he would vehemently and relentlessly obstruct and defeat a variety of "liberal" bills and presidential appointments, by any means necessary. Helms, who has had recurring health problems including heart disease, did not seek re-election in 2002. His Senate seat was won by Elizabeth Dole, the former Cabinet secretary and wife of former Senator Bob Dole. He is to date the longest-serving popularly elected U.S. senator in North Carolina history.
Helms Power in National Politics
Helms was a founder of "The Congressional Club", which is widely credited with innovations in American campaigning such as mass mail and direct mail fundraising. Helms' "Club" proved its strength in 1976 when it helped then California Governor Ronald Reagan defeat President Gerald Ford in the North Carolina Republican primary. Lou Cannon, Reagan's biographer, wrote that "without his performance in North Carolina, both in person and on television, Reagan would have faded from contention before Kansas City, and it is unlikely that he would have won the presidential nomination four years later."
Helms Since Retirement
Since retiring from the Senate in 2003, Helms remains heavily involved with the Jesse Helms Center in Wingate. In September 2005, Random House published the controversial Here's Where I Stand where a retrospective Helms sums up his life in politics.
Awards and Achievements
- North Carolina Press Association Award for Enterprising Reporting (1941) was awarded to Helms at age 20, making him the youngest reporter, up to that time, to win the award.
- The Annual Freedoms Foundation Award for Television Editorial Judged Best in America (1962)
- The Golden Gavel (1973 & 1974) for presiding over the Senate for 117 hours in 1973 and 120 hours in 1974.
- The Gold Medal of Merit from the Veterans of Foreign Wars
- The North Carolina American Legionaire Award
- Legislator of the Year Award by Christians for a Better America (1980)
- National Man of the Year in Politics by Christian Voice, Inc. (1980)
- North Carolina Public Service Award (1980)
- Most Admired Conservative in Congress by readers of Conservative Digest (1980, 1981, 1982)
- American Security Council Award (1982)
- Conservative Caucus 97th Congress Statesman Award (1983)
- The Golden Eagle Award from the American Federation of Police (1987)
- The "Spirit of Enterprise" Award from the US Chamber of Commerce (1989)
- The Guardian of Small Business Award from the National Federation of Independent Business
- The Watchdog of the Treasury Award from the National Associated Businessmen (every year since 1973)
- The Taxpayer's Best Friend Award from the National Taxpayers' Union (every year since 1981)
- Former President of the Raleigh Rotary Club
- Former President of the Raleigh Executives Club
- 33rd Degree Freemason, Grand Lodge of Masons of North Carolina (Grand Orator 1965, 1982, 1991)
- Shriner
External links
| Preceded by: {{{before}}}}|before=B. Everett Jordan}} | {{{title}}} {{{years}}}}|title=U.S. Senator (Class 1) from North Carolina|years=1973-2003}} | Succeeded by: {{{after}}} |
| Served in Senate Alongside: Sam J. Ervin, Robert Morgan, John P. East, James T. Broyhill, Terry Sanford, Lauch Faircloth, John Edwards | ||