1984 United States Senate election in North Carolina

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1984 United States Senate election in North Carolina
Flag of North Carolina (1885-1991).svg
  1978 November 6, 1984 1990  
  JesseHelmsCropped.png Jim Hunt official portrait (cropped).jpg
Nominee Jesse Helms Jim Hunt
Party Republican Democratic
Popular vote1,156,7681,070,488
Percentage51.66%47.81%

1984 United States Senate election in North Carolina results map by county.svg
County results

Helms:     50– 60%     60–70%     70–80%

Hunt:     40–50%     50–60%     60–70%

U.S. senator before election

Jesse Helms
Republican

Elected U.S. Senator

Jesse Helms
Republican

The North Carolina United States Senate election of 1984 was held on November 6, 1984 as part of the nationwide elections to the Senate, and coinciding with the 1984 presidential election. The election was a showdown between the Republican incumbent Jesse Helms and then-incumbent Democratic Governor Jim Hunt. This election was one of the most dramatic in 1984. In the end, Helms won the election, the most expensive non-presidential election in United States history up to that point, by a margin significantly reduced from the margin that Helms achieved in 1978.

Contents

Primaries

Republican primary

1984 North Carolina U.S. Senate Republican primary election [1]
PartyCandidateVotes%
Republican Jesse Helms (incumbent) 134,675 90.65%
Republican George Wimbish 13,7999.35%
Turnout 148,574

Democratic primary

Hunt easily defeated businessman Thomas Allred, a supporter of Lyndon Larouche, to win the Democratic nomination. [2]

1984 North Carolina U.S. Senate Democratic primary election [1]
PartyCandidateVotes%
Democratic Jim Hunt 655,429 77.48%
Democratic Thomas Allred 126,84114.99%
Democratic Harrill Jones 63,6767.53%
Turnout 845,946

General election

Campaign

Hunt had a commanding lead in opinion polls for much of the campaign, with one poll in 1983 putting him nineteen points clear of Helms. [3] However, that was changed by the most bitterly contested election in the country that year. [3] Hunt ran a campaign ad connecting Helms to death squads in El Salvador through his association with the Nationalist Republican Alliance, for whom Roberto d'Aubuisson had recently run for the President of El Salvador. [3] In the short time before election day, however, the highly popular incumbent US President Ronald Reagan gave Helms a significant boost [4] by campaigning for him and running a local TV ad praising Helms and asking registered voters in North Carolina to re-elect him. [5]

The election cost a total of $26,379,483 in total reported spending (over twelve times as much as the 1980 race), of which, 64% ($16.9m) was spent by Helms. [6]

This election is remembered as "one of North Carolina's most infamous political battles" and "as a prototype of the no-holds-barred brawls that typify a strand of modern-day partisan politics, polarizing voters along distinct ideological lines." [7]

Results

1984 North Carolina U.S. Senate election [1]
PartyCandidateVotes%
Republican Jesse Helms (incumbent) 1,156,768 51.66%
Democratic Jim Hunt 1,070,48847.81%
Libertarian Bobby Emory 9,3020.42%
Socialist Workers Kate Daher 2,4930.11%
Turnout 2,239,051
Republican hold

A study by Voters Education Project in Atlanta[ who? ] showed that Helms received 63 percent of the white vote and was particularly successful in small towns and rural areas, while receiving less than 1 percent of the black vote in 35 almost-all-black precincts. [8] Hunt got 37 percent of the white and 98.8 percent of the black vote, according to VEP. But only 61 percent of registered blacks voted, down from 63 percent in 1980." [8]

See also

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References

  1. 1 2 3 "North Carolina DataNet #46" (PDF). University of North Carolina. April 2008. Archived from the original (PDF) on July 25, 2008. Retrieved June 12, 2009.
  2. Newspapers.com archive
  3. 1 2 3 Joseph N., Boyce; Lamar, Jacob V. (September 24, 1984). "The Old South vs. the New". Time . Archived from the original on October 29, 2010. Retrieved June 10, 2009.
  4. http://www.unctv.org/U.S%5B%5D. Senatorno/peopleevents/events1.html
  5. Ronald Reagan ad for Jesse Helms
  6. "North Carolina DataNet #25" (PDF). University of North Carolina. Archived from the original (PDF) on July 25, 2008. Retrieved June 12, 2009.
  7. NCpedia: Helms-Hunt Senate race
  8. 1 2 Bill Peterson (November 18, 1984), "Jesse Helms' Lesson for Washington", The Washington Post, retrieved January 16, 2017
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