Jesse Helms

Jesse Alexander Helms (born October 18, 1921) is a former five-term Republican U.S. Senator from North Carolina.

Early Career

Helms's first full time job out of college was as a sports reporter with the Raleigh News and Observer. Here he met Dorothy Coble, who was the News and Observer's society reporter. They married in 1942. During World War II Helms served stateside as a recruiter in the United States Navy. After the war, he pursued his twin interests, journalism and politics (at this time, within the Democratic Party). Helms became the city news editor of The Raleigh Times, and would later move on to radio and television.

Related Topics:
Raleigh News and Observer - World War II - United States Navy - The Raleigh Times

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Helms was an "unofficial" researcher for conservative Democrat Willis Smith, whose 1950 U.S. Senate primary campaign is still considered one of the meanest and most racially divisive in the country's history. One of Smith's ads featured a doctored photo of incumbent Frank Porter Graham's wife dancing with a black man. Helms has denied any involvement, but a newspaper advertising manager later told Helms biographer Ernest Furgurson that Helms personally cut up the photos. After the election, Senator Smith hired Helms to be his administrative assistant in Washington.

Related Topics:
Willis Smith - Frank Porter Graham

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In 1952, Helms worked on the presidential campaign of Senator Richard B. Russell, Jr. of Georgia, who was seeking the Democratic nomination. From 1953 through 1960, Helms was Executive Director of the North Carolina Bankers Association. He went on to become the Executive Vice President, Vice Chairman of the Board and assistant Chief Executive Officer of Raleigh-based Capitol Broadcasting Company, from 1960 until his election to the Senate.

Related Topics:
Presidential - Campaign - Richard B. Russell, Jr. - Georgia - Democratic

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Meanwhile, Helms ran for and won a seat on the Raleigh City Council in 1957, serving for four years.

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Helms became famous as a conservative commentator through his daily editorials on Capitol Broadcasting Company's WRAL-TV and the Tobacco Radio Network. His editorials were broadcast by more than 70 radio stations in North Carolina and were reprinted regularly in more than 200 newspapers throughout the United States.

Related Topics:
WRAL-TV - North Carolina - United States

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During his broadcasts, Helms routinely editorialized on topics such as the "Communist infiltration of the civil rights movement."

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After working behind the scenes of the unsuccessful 1960 Democratic gubernatorial campaign of I. Beverly Lake, Sr., Helms drifted away from the Democratic Party and became a Republican.

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