page_title: Jesse Helms
section_title: Fifth Senate term (1997–2003)
hierarchical_section_title: Jesse Helms / Fifth Senate term (1997–2003)
caption_attribution_description: English: Senator Joe Biden and Sen. Jesse Helms (R-NC) at a press conference to discuss their deal that will pay the United Nations almost one billion dollars owed by the U.S. November 1999
context_page_description: Jesse Alexander Helms Jr. was an American politician, and a leader in the conservative movement. He was elected five times as a Republican to the United States Senate from North Carolina, serving from 1973 until 2003. As chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee from 1995 to 2001 he had a major voice in foreign policy. Helms helped organize and fund the conservative resurgence in the 1970s, focusing on Ronald Reagan's quest for the White House as well as helping many local and regional candidates.
  Helms was the longest-serving popularly elected Senator in North Carolina's history. He was widely credited with shifting the one-party state into a competitive two-party state. He advocated the movement of conservatives from the Democratic Party – which they deemed too liberal – to the Republican Party. The Helms-controlled National Congressional Club's state-of-the-art direct mail operation raised millions of dollars for Helms and other conservative candidates, allowing Helms to outspend his opponents in most of his campaigns.
caption: Helms with Joe Biden in 1999
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