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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.

{{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>https://name=jessehelmscenter.org/setting-the-record-straight</ref>}}