RightDataUSA


Jesse Helms

[Congressional biography]

Born: October 18, 1921 in Monroe, NC
Died: July 4, 2008 in Raleigh, NC

Education:

  • Attended Wake Forest College

Military Service:

  • U.S. Navy, 1942-1945

Career:

  • Editor of Raleigh Times
  • Assistant to Sen. Willis Smith & Sen. Alton Lennon, 1951-1953
  • Executive director, NC Bankers Association, 1953-1960
  • TV/radio executive, 1960-1972

Elected Office:

  • Raleigh city council, 1957-1961


Election Results for Jesse Helms


Click on the Year to see the results of that election.

YearAgeStatePartyOfficeDistrictStagePosVotes%
1972 50 NC R U.S. Senate Class 2 Primary 1 92,496 60.1%
1972 50 NC R U.S. Senate Class 2 General 1 795,248 54.0%
1978 56 NC R U.S. Senate Class 2 General 1 619,151 54.5%
1984 62 NC R U.S. Senate Class 2 Primary 1 134,675 90.6%
1984 62 NC R U.S. Senate Class 2 General 1 1,156,768 51.7%
1990 68 NC R U.S. Senate Class 2 Primary 1 157,545 84.3%
1990 68 NC R U.S. Senate Class 2 General 1 1,087,331 52.5%
1996 74 NC R U.S. Senate Class 2 General 1 1,345,833 52.6%


Age: Age as of July 1 of the year pertaining to this election.



Ideology Data for Jesse Helms


Click on the number in the 'Conserv.' column to see all of the key votes for that year.

YearAgeBodyConservative
Coalition		Party UnityPresidential
Support		Vote %LiberalConserv.
P
1973 51 Senate 98 0 89 5 R 76 21 95 0 96
1974 52 Senate 94 2 84 10 R 65 28 93 5* 100
1975 53 Senate 94 1 90 7 R 68 28 96 0 100
1976 54 Senate 94 3 95 2 R 77 23 97 5 100
1977 55 Senate 94 2 90 7 D 43 52 95 0 100
1978 56 Senate 82 5 84 6 D 20 68 87 6 100
1979 57 Senate 91 3 93 6 D 23 75 98 5 100
1980 58 Senate 98 2 92 7 D 34 66 99 11 100
1981 59 Senate 94 6 88 11 R 84 16 99 0 100
1982 60 Senate 99 1 87 13 R 75 25 99 0 100
1983 61 Senate 95 2 77 20 R 56 41 97 0 100
1984 62 Senate 100 0 90 8 R 86 10 98 5 100
1985 63 Senate 97 3 94 6 R 79 21 99 0 100
1986 64 Senate 95 5 95 5 R 90 10 100 0 100
1987 65 Senate 94 3 94 5 R 77 22 99 10 100
1988 66 Senate 81 5 72 12 R 60 26 85 5 96
1989 67 Senate 87 11 86 11 R 71 28 98 5 100
1990 68 Senate 84 14 88 11 R 68 32 99 6 100
1991 69 Senate 90 5 78 5 R 84 11 87 6 100
1992 70 Senate 71 3 71 3 R 62 15 63 6 100
1993 71 Senate 83 5 89 3 D 11 84 92 11 100
1994 72 Senate 81 13 91 5 D 18 76 95 0 100
1995 73 Senate 86 7 91 3 D 20 76 94 0 100
1996 74 Senate 95 3 96 3 D 25 75 99 5 100
1997 75 Senate 96 4 98 1 D 44 51 98 0 100
1998 76 Senate 100 0 75 2 D 25 53 78 0 100
1999 77 Senate 94 6 93 6 D 18 82 98 0 100
2000 78 Senate 98 2 94 2 D 31 69 90 5 100
2001 79 Senate 92 2 R 84 4 92 0 100
2002 80 Senate 41 0 R 26 2 38 0 100
Lifetime conservative rating:   100%


Age: Age as of July 1 of the year pertaining to this row.


Conservative Coalition: According to the publication "Congressional Quarterly" (CQ), this is an alliance of Republicans and Southern Democrats (from back when Southern Democrats tended to be conservative or at least moderate) against Northern Democrats in Congress.

This concept had significant meaning perhaps through the 1980's. These statistics stopped being computed after 2000 because conservative Democrats no longer existed except in very rare cases. The number under the green check is the percentage of time this Representative or Senator voted with the coalition; the number under the red X is the percentage of the time he opposed the coalition. The numbers often do not add to 100% because of instances where no vote was cast.


Party Unity: According to CQ, a Party Unity vote in Congress is one in which the parties were split, with a majority of Democrats opposing a majority of Republicans.

The number under the green check is the percentage of time this Representative or Senator voted with his party; the number under the red X is the percentage of the time he opposed the party. The numbers often do not add to 100% because of instances where no vote was cast.


Presidential Support: These are votes for which the President has stated his position, either in via a message to Congress, by press conference remarks or other public statements and documents.

The number under the green check is the percentage of time this Representative or Senator voted with the President; the number under the red X is the percentage of the time he opposed the President. The numbers often do not add to 100% because of instances where no vote was cast. The "P" column indicates the party of the President in each year.


Vote %: The percentage of roll-call votes in which this Representaive or Senator participated by voting "Yes" or "No" (as opposed to "Present" or not voting at all.)


Liberal Rating: These ratings are based on key votes as identifed by the ultra-liberal advocacy organization called "Americans for Democratic Action" (ADA). They have been rating members of Congress since 1947. The number shown is the percentage of the time this Representative or Senator took the liberal position on a key issue. The methodology behind the calculation can be found here. Ratings followed by an asterisk were calculated the "ADA way" due to missing data regarding key votes in the ADA source material.


Conservative Rating: These ratings are based on key votes as identifed by the conservative advocacy organization called the "American Conservative Union" (ACU). They have been rating members of Congress since 1971. The number shown is the percentage of the time this Representative or Senator took the conservative position on a key issue.

The liberal and conservative ratings are not expected to add to 100% because the two groups use different sets of key votes to determine their ratings. Conservative ratings from 1961 through 1970 (and for 2024) were calculated based on key votes as selected by the creators of this website.