|serviceyears=1942-1945
}}
'''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]].<refname="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.<refname="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."[http://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 />
=== WRAL Radio and AA to Senator Willis Smith ===
In 1948, became a radio news director at WRAL in Raleigh, NC. Helms reported on the heated 1950 Democratic primary for the Senate. Another ad featured photographs Helms himself had doctored to illustrate the allegation that Graham's wife had danced with a black man. 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.
=== Bankers Association to Capital Broadcasting ===
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>
== Senate career ==
[[File:Senator Jesse helms.jpg|Right|150px|thumb|]]
=== Democrat to Republican ===
In 1970, 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 the GOP across the South. 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.
=== Senator No ===
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/http://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>
=== Standing on principle ===