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2.4 The 1984 Senate campaign

In 1984, Senator Jesse Helms faced re-election for the second time. His opponent was Jim Hunt, then finishing his second term as governor. The election was the most expensive non-presidential election in the nation’s history to that point, and it was also one of the ugliest. Although Helms trailed by 20 percent in polls a year before the election, he won re-election by 4 percentage points, helped by Ronald Reagan’s landslide victory that year.

The Old South vs. the New (Time, September 24, 1984)
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Jesse Helms and James Hunt, 47, the Democrat who hopes to wrest away his seat, met in the second of four scheduled television debates. It was a battle of the Old South vs. the New. Hunt is North Carolina’s popular, two-term Governor, an earnest, mild-mannered and moderate Democrat.