Jesse Alexander Helms, Jr. (born October 18, 1921) is a former five-term Republican U.S. Senator from North Carolina, and a former chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. He was considered one of the leading figures of the modern "Christian right".

Helms was born in Monroe, North Carolina, where his father, called "Big Jesse," served as chief of police. Jesse and Dot Helms are the parents of three children: Jane, Nancy of Raleigh, and Charles Helms of Winston-Salem, North Carolina. They have seven grandchildren.

Helms never obtained a university degree. He attended Wingate Junior College (now Wingate University) and Wake Forest University but did not graduate. He holds honorary degrees from some universities including Bob Jones University, Grove City College, Campbell University, and Wingate University.

Helms's first full-time job after college was as a sports reporter with The News & Observer of Raleigh, North Carolina. There he met Dorothy Coble, who was the newspaper'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 later moved to radio and television.

Helms began his career in politics as an unofficial researcher for Willis Smith, a conservative Democratic lawyer who successfully ran for the U.S. Senate in 1950. Smith ran as an outspoken supporter of racial segregation. After the election, Senator Smith hired Helms to be his administrative assistant in Washington, D.C. In 1952, Helms worked on the presidential campaign of Senator Richard B. Russell, Jr., of Georgia, who was seeking the Democratic nomination. When Smith suddenly died in 1953, Helms left Washington and returned to Raleigh.

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 the Raleigh-based Capitol Broadcasting Company, from 1960 until his election to the Senate. During his time at CBC, he gained fame as a conservative commentator through his daily editorials on WRAL-TV in Raleigh. The editorials, which he gave at the end of each night's local news broadcast, made Helms famous throughout eastern North Carolina. The editorials featured folksy anecdotes interwoven with vivid right-wing viewpoints. Many of the editorials were later used as evidence of Helms' racial intolerance. For example, in one editorial he labeled the University of North Carolina (UNC) the "University of Negroes and Communists." He also referred to The News and Observer, his former employer, as the "Nuisance and Disturber" for its promotion of liberal views. The University of North Carolina, which had a reputation as a bastion of liberalism in the state, was a frequent target of Helms' criticism: in one memorable editorial he suggested that a wall be erected around the campus to prevent the university's liberal views from "infecting" the rest of the state. Although his editorials created controversy, they also made him popular with conservative voters, and Helms won a seat on the nonpartisan Raleigh City Council in 1957. He served for four years.

Helms worked on the unsuccessful 1960 Democratic primary gubernatorial campaign of I. Beverly Lake, Sr., who ran as a supporter of racial segregation. Lake was defeated by Terry Sanford, who ran as a racial moderate willing to implement the federal government's policy of school integration.

In 1970, Helms, prodded by a daughter and disgruntled by the Democratic Party's position on civil rights, left the Democratic Party to become a Republican.

In 1972, Helms announced his candidacy for a seat in the United States Senate. He won the Republican primary with 60.1 percent of the vote and eliminated two intraparty opponents. Meanwhile, the Democrats retired the ailing Senator B. Everett Jordan, who lost his primary, 55.3 percent to 44.6 percent, to Congressman Nick Galifianakis of Durham. Benefiting from Richard Nixon's landslide re-election, Helms became the first Republican elected to the Senate from North Carolina in the 20th century. Helms polled 795,248 (54 percent) to Galifianakis' 677,293 (46 percent).

In 1978, Helms successfully defended his seat against state Insurance Commissioner John Ingram in a low-turnout off-year election. Helms received 619,151 votes (54.5 percent) to Ingram's 516,663 (45.5 percent). Ingram carried the strong support of President Jimmy Carter. The 1978 election would give Helms his largest margin of victory in his five Senate campaigns.

In 1984, in the most expensive Senate campaign up to that time, Helms narrowly defeated powerful two-term Governor Jim Hunt, thanks in part to then-President Ronald Reagan's support and popularity in North Carolina. Helms polled 1,156,768 (51.7 percent) to Hunt's 1,070,488 (47.8 percent). Although this was a solid victory against a formidable opponent, it should be noted that President Reagan carried the state with 62 percent of the vote, and GOP gubernatorial candidate James G. Martin won with 54 percent.

In both 1990 and 1996, Helms won against Harvey Gantt, the former mayor of Charlotte. Both campaigns attracted major national attention not only because of Helms' national prominence and controversial positions on many issues, but also because Gantt was an African-American whose race and moderate-to-liberal political views provided a stark contrast to Helms. Helms' 1990 victory has been partially credited to a late-running television commercial that urged white voters to reject Gantt because of the Democratic candidate's support for affirmative action programs. The ad showed a white man's hands ripping up a rejection notice from a company that had not hired him due to affirmative action policies that had given the job to a black person. The ad was the brainchild of Dick Morris, who in the 1990's would become a key political advisor to President Bill Clinton. Helms won the 1990 election by 1,087,331 votes (52.5 percent) to Gantt's 981,573 (47.4 percent). In his 1990 victory statement, Helms mocked the major North Carolina newspapers for their unhappiness over his victory, quoting a line from "Casey at the Bat": "There's no joy in Mudville tonight."

In 1996, Helms drew 1,345,833 (52.6 percent) to Gantt's 1,173,875 (45.9 percent). Helms supported his former Senate colleague Bob Dole for president, while Gantt endorsed Bill Clinton.

Although Helms is generally credited with being the most successful Republican politician in North Carolina history, it is also worth noting that his largest margin of victory in any of his five elections was 54.5 percent of the vote. In North Carolina Helms was a polarizing figure, and he freely admitted that many people in the state strongly disliked him: "They (the Democrats) could nominate Mortimer Snerd and he'd automatically get 45 percent of the vote." Helms was particularly popular among older, conservative constituents and was considered one of the last "Old South" politicians to have served in the Senate. However, he also considered himself a voice of conservative youth, whom he hailed in the dedication of his autobiography. He is widely credited with helping to move North Carolina from a one-party state dominated by the Democratic Party into a competitive two-party state that usually votes Republican in presidential elections. Under Helms' banner many white conservative Democrats in eastern North Carolina switched parties and began to vote increasingly Republican.

During the 1976 Republican National Convention, Helms encouraged a movement to draft Senator James L. Buckley, as an effort to stop the nomination of Ronald Reagan for President, despite his earlier support during the North Carolina presidential primary. Reagan had announced that Pennsylvania Senator Richard Schweiker would be his running mate if picked; Helms believed that Schweiker was far too liberal. The "Draft Buckley" movement was mooted when President Gerald Ford very narrowly won the party's nomination on the first ballot.

As a senator, Helms became one of the leaders of the increasingly influential conservative movement within the Republican Party, giving Ronald Reagan crucial support in 1976 in the pivotal North Carolina GOP primary that paved the way for Reagan's presidential election in 1980. This was accomplished in part through literature that claimed incumbent Republican President Gerald Ford might name liberal Senator Edward Brooke of Massachussetts (a black man) as his vice-presidential nominee.

Helms became chairman of the Senate Agriculture Committee in the 1980s. He was also an advocate of the tobacco industry in Congress, since much of North Carolina's rural economy relies on tobacco. (Hubert Humphrey once said that, "I'll trade Jesse Helms his tobacco vote for my wheat support any day.") Tobacco companies such as R. J. Reynolds and Philip Morris have supported him, both directly and through donations to the Jesse Helms Center at Wingate University.

When Republicans regained control of Congress after the 1994 elections, Helms became chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. In that role, he pushed for reform of the United Nations and blocked payment of UN dues by the United States. As he gained seniority and clout, Helms became known as "Senator No" because he would obstruct a variety of Democratic bills and presidential appointments. Helms reportedly delighted in the nickname. But Helms passed few laws of his own in part because of his bridge-burning style. Hedrik Smith's The Power Game depicts several senators specifically blocking Helms' goals as result of his intransigence. The 1960s conservative icon and fellow Republican senator Barry Goldwater once remarked that Helms was "off his rocker". http://www.cnn.com/ALLPOLITICS/1998/05/29/goldwater.obit/

Helms vehemently opposed granting MFN to China, citing human rights concerns.

Though a chairman of a major Senate committee, he regularly eschewed invitations to go on Sunday interview programs, claiming his constituents did not watch them. He also advised a young press aide not to write a letter to the New York Times after one of its editorials condemned Helms: again, since most of the constituency did not subscribe to the paper, there was no need for him to engage the paper in a dispute.

On December 5, 1991, Senator Helms wrote to Boris Yeltsin concerning U.S. servicemen who were POWs or MIAs. "The status of thousands and thousands of American servicemen who are held by Soviet and other Communist forces, and who were never repatriated after every major war this century, is of grave concern to the American people." Yeltsin would ultimately respond with a statement made on June 15, 1992, while being interviewed aboard his presidential jet on his way to the United States, "Our archives have shown that it is true — some of them were transferred to the territory of the U.S.S.R. and were kept in labor camps... We can only surmise that some of them may still be alive." On December 10, just five days after Senator Helms had written Yeltsin concerning American servicemen, he again wrote to Yeltsin, this time concerning KAL 007. "One of the greatest tragedies of the Cold War was the shoot-down of the Korean Airlines flight KAL-007 by the Armed Forces of what was then the Soviet Union on September 1, 1983. . . The KAL-007 tragedy was one of the most tense incidences of the entire Cold War. However, now that relations between our two nations have improved substantially, I believe that it is time to resolve the mysteries surrounding this event. Clearing the air on this issue could help further to improve relations http://www.rescue007.org/helms_letter.htm." Yeltsin would ultimately respond on January 8, 1992 by handing over to the International Civil Aviation Organization what the Russians had for so many years denied possessing: the tapes of the KAL 007's "Black Box" (its Digital Flight Data Recorder and Cockpit Voice Recorder) http://www.rescue007.org/docs/Is%20This%20the%20Final%20Word.pdf.

Helms was particularly viotriolic when speaking of gays and lesbians, blaming them for "the proliferation of AIDS," and stating that he disliked using the word "gay" to refer to them since, "...there's nothing gay about them."

Helms opposed the Martin Luther King holiday bill in 1983 on grounds that King had two associates with communist ties, Stanley Levison and Jack O'Dell; as well, he voiced disapproval of King's alleged philandering.

Helms' referred to the University of North Carolina (UNC) as the "University of Negroes and Communists." (Charleston Gazette, 9/15/95) http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=1346

Helms once deeply offended a black colleague, Democratic Senator Carol Moseley-Braun of Illinois, by singing part of "Dixie" on a Capitol elevator.

Soon after the Senate vote on the Confederate flag insignia, Sen. Jesse Helms (R.-N.C.) ran into Mosely-Braun in a Capitol elevator. Helms turned to his friend, Sen. Orrin Hatch (R.-Utah), and said, "Watch me make her cry. I'm going to make her cry. I'm going to sing 'Dixie' until she cries." He then proceeded to sing the song about the good life during slavery to Mosely-Braun (Gannett News Service, 9/2/93; Time, 8/16/93).

http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=1346 Moseley-Braun had won, in a memorable floor fight, and Helms was furious. However, it was later discovered that Helms' whistling of Dixie was in response to Moseley-Braun's "Black Power" clenched fist salute to him upon entering the elevator. Moseley-Braun filed a complaint on behalf of the incident that was thrown out upon the discovery of this detail. Following the incident, Helms hired Claude Allen, who is black, as his press secretary. James Meredith, who earned fame as the first African American student admitted to the University of Mississippi, also served on Helms' staff.

While working on the 1950 campaign of Republican Willis Smith against Democrat Frank Porter Graham, Helms helped create an ad that read "White people, wake up before it is too late. Do you want Negroes working beside you, your wife and your daughters, in your mills and factories? Frank Graham favors mingling of the races." Another ad featured photographs Helms himself had doctored to illustrate the allegation that Graham's wife had danced with a black man. (FAIR 9/1/01, The News and Observer 8/26/01)

Helms was an ardent supporter of the late Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet. http://www.indyweek.com/gyrobase/Content?oid=15917

When Roberta Achtenberg was appointed Assistant Secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development in 1993 by President Bill Clinton, Helms attempted to block her confirmation, stating that he refused to vote for "that damned lesbian".

After a protest during his 1986 visit to Mexico, Helms opined: "All Latins are volatile people. Hence, I was not surprised at the volatile reaction." http://www.rotten.com/library/bio/usa/jesse-helms/

In 1994 spoke out against metal industrial singer Marilyn Manson. Manson responded by painting an anti-gay slur on his chest during a show in Winston-Salem, in a sarcastic and critical display against Helms's social viewpoints.

Henrick Herztberg of the New Yorker noted in his memoirs that Helms had "the 'humorous habit'" of calling all black people "Fred".

Helms used racial issues in many elections; for instance, in 1990, he ran the famous "Hands" television ad in a tough re-election race. The ad has become legendary in Southern political circles as the most direct appeal to white backlash in modern American politics. The ad played upon white voters' fears that affirmative action policies might prevent them from getting a job that would go to a "less-qualified" black person (watch the ad).

Helms opposed an amendment offering reparations to Japanese-Americans who had been interned during World War II; he proposed an amendment stipulating that no reparations would be made unless the Japanese government compensated the families of Americans killed at Pearl Harbor.

In 1994, Helms created a sensation when, on the anniversary of John F. Kennedy's assassination, he told broadcasters Rowland Evans, Jr., and Robert Novak that Clinton was "not up" to the tasks of being commander-in-chief and suggested that Clinton had "better not show up around here [Fort Bragg] without a bodyguard". http://www.time.com/time/archive/preview/0,10987,981957,00.html

Helms was a strong supporter of drug prohibition, and opposed former Massachusetts Governor Bill Weld's nomination as Ambassador to Mexico because Weld supported medical marijuanahttp://www.comedyzine.com/tirade32.shtml. Helms often proposed bills that escalated the "war on drugs" http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=104&session=2&vote=00271.

Helms once claimed that "The New York Times and Washington Post are both infested with homosexuals themselves. Just about every person down there is a homosexual or lesbian." http://www.bettybowers.com/helms.html

Because of recurring health problems, including bone disorders, prostate cancer and heart disease, Helms did not seek re-election in 2002. His Senate seat was won by Elizabeth Dole, wife of long-time colleague and former Senator Bob Dole. Helms remains to date the longest-serving popularly-elected U.S. senator in North Carolina history.

Since retiring from the Senate in 2003, Helms has been in poor health. In September 2005, Random House published his memoir Here's Where I Stand. Helms has also been recruited by pop star Bono for charity work. In 2004, he spoke out for the election of Republican U.S. Representative Richard Burr, who, like Elizabeth Dole two years earlier, defeated the Democrat Erskine Bowles to win the other North Carolina Senate seat. Helms has designated Wingate University as the repository of the official papers and historical items from his Senate career.

Jerry Falwell's Liberty University opened the Jesse Helms School of Government in 2005. Helms was present at the dedication ceremony.

In April 2006 news reports disclosed Helms has multi-infarct dementia, which leads to failing memory and cognitive function, as well as a number of physical difficulties. He has since been moved into a convalescent center near his home. His wife was quoted to have said that "he has his good days and his bad days. He still sees friends. Company is good for him. He is still signing books. But he is not able to conduct any business or make any speeches."

*During the 1996 MTV Video Music Awards, host Dennis Miller announced that Helms was in the audience, followed by a close-up of a pig. The pig was actually the pig used to portray the title role in the movie Babe. *Helms is pointedly targeted in a satiric comedy routine by Bill Hicks, in which Hicks says anyone that far to the right is hiding a dark secret, and suggests Helms will commit suicide and afterward the skins of small children will be found in his attic. *Musician Todd Rundgren wrote a song about Helms entitled "Jesse". *Loudon Wainwright III wrote a song about Helms entitled "Jesse don't like it". *Nerdcore hip-hop artist MC Hawking released a song in MP3 format called "Why Won't Jesse Helms Just Hurry Up and Die?" *In 1993, Roy Zimmerman of the Foremen penned a song called "Jesse Helms" for the Folk Heroes album. *In 1998, Monroe, North Carolina native Tim Kirkman wrote and directed Dear Jesse, a first-person documentary filmed "letter" to the senator from the openly gay filmmaker. * Sonic Youth's song "Chapel Hill" includes the lyrics "Jesse H., come into our pit." * Bongwater refer to "Jesse Helms pea brain" in their song Folk Song

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*International Committee for the Rescue of KAL 007 Survivors

*The Jesse Helms Center *"Jesse Helms: To mold a nation" — article at the Raleigh News & Observer *Liberty University's Helms School of Government

*"Jesse Helms: 16th century thinkin'" — article at Freepress.org *"Jesse Helms, White Racist" — a 2001 article by David Broder of The Washington Post *"Media Downplay Bigotry of Jesse Helms," FAIR, 2001. *"A Career Based on Contempt for Democratic Rights" WSWS, 2001. *Whitewash article by Barry Yeoman, Independent Weekly