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'''Jesse Helms''' (born Jesse Alexander Helms, Jr., October 18, 1921, d. July 4, 2008) was a five-time [[Republican]] [[U.S. Senator|senator]] from [[North Carolina]].<ref name="bioguide.congress.gov">http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=H000463</ref> Helms, throughout his tenure as United States Senator was known for his [[conservative]] principles, including his support for a strong defense, individual rights, the oppressed, and support for freedom. Like most conservative politicians who eschew political correctness, Helms was frequently the target of mainstream [[media bias]], despite his former career in the media.<ref name="jessehelmscenter.org">http://www.jessehelmscenter.org/jessehelms/biography.asp</ref> Helms was a staunch advocate for equality under law, but due to his Southern background and incorrect party affiliation, his positions were misrepresented through typically biased reporting.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20080609062721/http://www.jessehelmscenter.org/jessehelms/fictionortruth.asp Fiction or Truth: Correcting myths about Senator Helms]</ref> However, Helms opposed the Civil Rights Act of 1964.<ref>[http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/topstories/2008-07-04-3453838024_x.htm Jesse Helms: Polarizer, not a compromiser], [[USA Today]]</ref> Helms also opposed extending the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Reagan called Helms a "lionhearted leader of a great and growing army."<ref>[http://www.wral.com/news/local/politics/story/1755723/ Conservative icon Jesse Helms dead at 86]</ref> Frequently Helms was the target of massive, heavily funded [[liberal]] efforts to defeat him at reelection, and every time Helms crushed the liberals and won handily. In 1990, a weak election year for [[Republicans]], polls just prior to the election suggested that his [[liberal]] African American opponent Harvey Gantt would prevail. Helms ran a final advertisement that became famous as the "hands" ad, showing a white pair of hands and a voice complaining that he lost a job opportunity due to [[affirmative action]], which his opponent supported.<ref name=npr>The voice in the ad stated, "You needed that job and you were the best qualified, but they had to give it to a minority because of a racial quota. Is that really fair? Harvey Gantt says it is."[httphttps://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=92241325&ft=1&f=1003 Longtime Sen. Jesse Helms Was Conservative Purist], [[NPR]]</ref> The [[liberal]] press accused Helms of injecting race into the campaign, to which he responded:<ref name=npr />

Helms died at age 86 of natural causes on the [[Fourth of July]], 2008, in [[Raleigh]].<ref>[httphttps://www.foxnews.com/story/2008/07/05/former-north-carolina-sen-jesse-helms-dies-at-86.html Former North Carolina Sen. Jesse Helms Dies at 86], [[Fox News]]</ref>

Helms' parents were Jesse Helms Sr., the local chief of police, and his wife Ethel Mae Helms.<ref>[httphttps://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/05/us/politics/00helms.html?_r=0 Jesse Helms Dies at 86; Conservative Force in the Senate], [[The New York Times]]</ref>

In 1948, became a radio news director at WRAL in Raleigh, NC. Helms reported on the heated 1950 Democratic primary for the Senate. Another An ad featured photographs Helms himself had doctored to illustrate the allegation that Graham's wife had danced with a black man. <ref name=jessehelmscenter>https://jessehelmscenter.org/setting-the-record-straight</ref> The winner of this race, Senator Willis Smith, took him to Washington as his administrative assistant a post at which he served until 1953 staying on to become Senator Alton Lennon's assistant after Smith's untimely demise.<ref>http://name="bioguide.congress.gov"/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=H000463</ref> Willis, like Helms was a conservative Southern Democrat.<refname="answers.com">http://www.answers.com/topic/jesse-helms</ref> Willis's defeated opponent, the liberal Frank Porter Graham was appointed by his supporter President Harry Truman as Ambassador to the United Nations.<ref>http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=g000353</ref> Helms also worked on the unsuccessful Democratic primary presidential campaign of Richard B. Russell, Jr., in 1952.

Helms early work in politics lead him to become the Executive director of the North Carolina Bankers Association and later the Raleigh City Council where he opposed excessive taxation and supported limiting the growth of government.<ref>http://www.name="answers.com"/topic/jesse-helms</ref> By the mid-1960s, Helms became the executive Vice President for Capitol Broadcasting in Raleigh. He directed the news operation and delivered over-the-air commentaries. Helms developed a following due to his firebrand but perceptive political commentary<ref>http://www.name="jessehelmscenter.org"/jessehelms/biography.asp</ref> which often attacked the decline of morality, liberal trends in society of the time, the Federal government's dubious social engineering in the southern states and Judicial activism.<ref>http://www.name="answers.com"/topic/jesse-helms</ref>

[[File:Senator Jesse helmsHelms and Biden.jpg|Rightright|150px300px|thumb|Sen. Helms with Joe Biden of Delaware.]]=== Democrat to Republican ===In 1970, Years before entering the Senate Helms left the Democratic party for the Republican party, which had long been unpopular outside the Carolina mountain districts. His shift reflected the movement of young white conservatives into leaving the GOP across the South[[New Left|communist infiltrated Democrat party]]. In 1972 he ran for the Senate as a supporter of Republican presidential candidate [[Richard M. Nixon]]. Helms faced liberal Democrat Nick Galifianakis. Helms's successful tactic was to associate Galifiankis with the highly unpopular liberal presidential candidate [[George McGovern]]. He won the Senate seat with 54% of the vote. He was reelected in 1978 (with 55%), 1984 (with 52%), 1990 (with 53%), and 1996 (with 53%). His margins were never large and his campaigns were always intensely fought. Although repeatedly targeted for defeat by national Democrats, he always pulled off narrow victories, and helped his allies win statewide office as well.  On the controversial issue of school busing, Helms voted with Democrat [[segregation]]ist Sen. [[Joe Biden]] of [[Delaware]] for the [[Joe_Biden_early_life_and_career#Biden_Amendment|1975 Biden Amendment]] that repealed portions of the [[Civil Rights Act of 1964]] on the issue of using school busing to achieve racial integration.<ref>https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2015/08/04/joe-biden-integration-school-busing-120968/</ref>

Helms' opposition to increasing the role of the federal government in the lives of every day citizens earned him the title "Senator No". From his first term to his last Helms rejected nominations of unqualified liberal candidates, against federal spending (except military spending and federal aid for farmers),<ref>http://www.name="answers.com"/topic/jesse-helms</ref> and opposed naming a holiday for Dr. [[Martin Luther King]].<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20080705044912/httphttps://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/07/04/obit.helms/index.html Ex-Sen. Jesse Helms dies at 86], [[CNN]]</ref> Helms supported and befriended qualified candidates regardless of party affiliation whom he felt would better the country, such as [[Madeline Albright]] for US Ambassador to the United Nations and later Secretary of State (ref: Madam Secretary, Madeline Albright). Helms was known for his bipartisan friendships despite ideological differences. However, Helms was broadminded and tolerant of contrary views, and unafraid to be proven in error. For instance Helms originally stood against increased funding to stop the devastation caused by [[AIDS]] in Africa. Helms change of heart on this issue in his own words: "It had been my feeling that AIDS was a disease largely spread by reckless and voluntary sexual and drug-abusing behavior, and that it would probably be confined to those in high risk populations. I was wrong."<ref>Jesse Helms, ''Here's Where I Stand: A Memoir'' (2005)</ref>

In 1993, the RFRA was introduced and passed the senate by a vote of 97-397–3.<ref>[httphttps://www.nationalreview.com/article/291310/church-and-rfra-brian-bolduc The Church and the RFRA], [[National Review]]</ref> Helms was one of the three votes against the bill at the time, and for specific reasons which are usually not mentioned<ref>[httphttps://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/04/01/everybody-s-lost-their-goddamn-mind-over-religious-freedom.html]</ref>

Helms believed that America should stand against dictators [[dictator]]s and [[human rights]] abusers and help bring its values of freedom and democracy to the world. This belief caused Helms to stand against "[[Most Favored Nation]]" status for China (which the Reagan and Nixon Administrations supported). At the same time, Helms stood for a strong national defense and strongly opposed Communism and would occasionally compromise on the humanitarian part of his policy when it suited those aims, such was the case in his support for the dictator Augusto Pinochet.<ref>http://www.jessehelmscenter.org/principles/default.asp</ref> Helms opposed arms control and nuclear test-ban treaties even when some of these measures were supported by Reagan himself.<ref name=freep />

In 1996, Helms caused controversy by seeming to threaten then president [[Bill Clinton]] when he said 'Mr. Clinton better watch out if he comes down here (North Carolina). He’d He'd better have a bodyguard'.<ref>[http://www.bartleby.com/66/41/27741.html The Columbia World of Quotations]</ref> The following day, he said:{{Cquote|I made a mistake last evening which I shall not repeat. In an informal telephone interview with a local reporter I made an offhand remark…Of course I didn’t expect to be taken literally when, to emphasize the cost and concerns I am hearing, I far too casually suggested that the President might need a bodyguard, or words to that effect.<ref name=jessehelmscenter/>}}

Jesse Helms was a [[Freemason]].<ref>[http://www.newraleigh.com/articles/archive/jesse-helms Jesse Helms: A Complicated Man]</ref><ref>S. Brent Morris & Arturo de Hoyos Is it True What They Say About Freemasonry? M. Evans The Rowman and Littlefield Publishing Group Lanham, Maryland 2010 page 107</ref><ref>The Everything Freemasons Book: Unlock the Secrets of this Ancient and Mysterious Society J. Young & B. Karg 2006 F+W Media page 132</ref><ref>http://www.mastermason.com/toowoombalodge132/Famous%20Masons.html</ref> He was also a member of the Rotary Club.<ref>[http://www.nndb.com/people/595/000022529/]</ref>

Concerning Stacy (3years) and Noelle (5 years) Grenfell, passengers aboard KAL 007, Senator Helms, who was on sister flight KAL 015 also on the way to Seoul, [[South Korea]] to celebrate the 30th year anniversary of the U.S. South Korea Mutual Defense Treaty, would write:

* "If freedom is right and tyranny is wrong, why should those who believe in freedom treat it as if it were a roll of bologna to be bartered a slice at a time?"<ref>[httphttps://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/jesse-helms-battled-liberals-communists Jesse Helms Battled Liberals, Communists]</ref>