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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 name="bioguide.congress.gov"/> Willis, like Helms was a conservative Southern Democrat.<ref name="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.

[[File:Senator Jesse helmsHelms and Biden.jpg|Jesse Helmsright|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 [[Joe Biden]] of [[Delaware]] for the [[Joe_Biden_early_life_and_career#Biden_Amendment|1975 Biden Amendment]] that repealed portions of the [[Civil Rights Act of 1964]] on the issue of using school busing to achieve racial integration.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 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 />