1984 United States Senate election in North Carolina

Primaries

Republican primary

Democratic primary

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

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. However, that was changed by the most bitterly contested election in the country that year. 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. In the short time before election day, however, the highly popular incumbent US President Ronald Reagan gave Helms a significant boost by campaigning for him and running a local TV ad praising Helms and asking registered voters in North Carolina to re-elect him.

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.

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."

Results

A study by Voters Education Project in Atlanta 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. 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."

References

References

1. (April 2008). "North Carolina DataNet #46". [[University of North Carolina]].
2. [https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/121677230/ Newspapers.com archive]
3. Joseph N., Boyce. (September 24, 1984). "The Old South vs. the New".
4. http://www.unctv.org/U.S{{Dead link. (February 2019)
5. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C0xy5a3HikU Ronald Reagan ad for Jesse Helms]
6. "North Carolina DataNet #25". [[University of North Carolina]].
7. [https://www.ncpedia.org/helms-hunt-senate-race NCpedia: Helms-Hunt Senate race]
8. Bill Peterson. (November 18, 1984). "Jesse Helms' Lesson for Washington". The Washington Post.