1996 United States Senate election in North Carolina

The North Carolina United States Senate election of 1996 was held on November 5, 1996 as part of the nationwide elections to the Senate, and coincided with the 1996 presidential election.

1996 United States Senate election in North Carolina

← 1990 November 5, 1996 2002 →

Nominee Jesse Helms Harvey Gantt Party Republican Democratic Popular vote 1,345,833 1,173,875 Percentage 52.64% 45.92%

County results Helms:      40-50%      50-60%      60-70%      70-80% Gantt:      40–50%      50–60%      60–70%

U.S. senator before election Jesse Helms Republican Elected U.S. Senator Jesse Helms Republican

The general election was a rematch of the 1990 election between Republican incumbent Jesse Helms and Democratic nominee Harvey Gantt, the former Mayor of Charlotte. Helms won re-election to a fifth and final term by a slightly wider margin than in 1990. Helms would ultimately tie with Furnifold Simmons as North Carolina's longest-serving U.S senator, with a record of 30 years.

Democratic primary

In the Democratic primary, Gantt defeated Charles Sanders, who was CEO of pharmaceutical company Glaxo.^[1][2] As a candidate, Gantt supported a balanced federal budget, a $10,000 tax deduction for the middle-class, while also pledging to defend Medicare and education funding.^[3]

1996 North Carolina U.S. Senate Democratic primary election^[4]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Democratic	Harvey Gantt	308,337	52.40%	+14.88%
	Democratic	Charles Sanders	245,297	41.68%	N/A
	Democratic	Ralph McKinney	34,829	5.92%	N/A
Turnout			588,463

Republican primary

Jesse Helms won the Republican Party's nomination unopposed.

General election

During the campaign, Helms refused to debate Gantt or appear in public with him, instead choosing to focus his campaign's energy on television advertisements. Helms' campaign ads accused Gantt of being too socially liberal on issues such as gay rights and the death penalty. A major issue in the campaign were proposals for tobacco regulation: Helms accused Gantt of supporting President Bill Clinton's efforts to regulate tobacco use, while Gantt broke with his party to criticize Clinton on the subject.^[3]

In return, Gantt accused Helms of being out-of-touch on "kitchen table issues" affecting working-class families, and stated that Helms "appeals to the bigotry and the prejudice that may be within all of us", though stopped short of calling Helms a racist.^[5]

Results

Following this election, every senator from the Class II senate seat only served one term until Thom Tillis won re-election in 2020.

1996 North Carolina U.S. Senate election

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Republican	Jesse Helms (Incumbent)	1,345,833	52.64%	+0.08%
	Democratic	Harvey Gantt	1,173,875	45.92%	−1.49%
	Libertarian	Ray Ubinger	25,396	0.99%	N/A
	Natural Law	Victor Pardo	11,209	0.44%	N/A
Turnout			2,556,456
	Republican hold

See also

• 1996 United States Senate elections