Running for the Senate

Biographical Conversations with James B. Hunt, Jr. begins with Hunt's recollections of President Ronald Reagan, elected to the country's highest office in 1980. Though critical of some of Reagan’s policies—such as the president's tax cuts—Governor Hunt respected the charismatic leader’s positive attitude. "For him it was always morning in America," Hunt says of the 40th president. Reagan’s optimism made him the overwhelming favorite to win reelection in 1984. Throughout his presidency, Reagan remained enormously popular among North Carolina Republicans and Independents, as well as some Tar Heel Democrats.

Jim Hunt remained immensely popular in his home state as well, and in the early months of 1984, the governor held a small lead in his senatorial race against Republican incumbent Jesse Helms. But this was to be a brutal campaign, filled with personal attacks on Hunt’s character. "Oh, it was ugly," Gov. Hunt recalls. “The ads that Senator Helms’ team ran were almost all negative ads against me.”