Hunt, Helms and MLK

I was struck last week by Republican politicians posting tributes to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., even as they fight everything he stood, marched and died for.

Forty years ago, in 1984, the King holiday was a big issue in the Senate race between Jesse Helms and Jim Hunt.

Helms opposed the holiday. He filibustered against it on the Senate floor.

He said King had a philosophy of ”action-oriented Marxism” that ”is not compatible with the concepts of this country” and “harbored a strong sympathy for the Communist Party and its goals.” And Helms claimed the holiday would cost too much.

Asked how Black North Carolinians might react, Helms told reporters, ”I’m not going to get any Black votes, period.”

That was in October 1983, when Hunt led in the polls and was favored to win.

Hunt supported the holiday. Just before he announced his support, I was in a small conference room in the Administration Building downtown with him and one of his older, more conservative advisors.

He cautioned the Governor, “This could lose you the election.”

Hunt replied, “Well, in that case, I’ll just have to lose.”

Through the campaign, Helms hammered on the King holiday. His campaign ran TV, radio and newspaper ads against it. He brought it up in debates. He rarely missed a chance to demagogue on it.

In the end, Hunt lost – by four percentage points, about 86,000 votes out of 2.2 million.

A big factor was Ronald Reagan’s landslide victory over Walter Mondale. Reagan won North Carolina by 24 points, more than half a million votes.

That was hard to overcome.

So was racial bigotry.

After the election, we did a poll, looking for issues that best predicted how people had voted.

The most important single factor, by far, was the King holiday. There was a nearly 100% correlation between opposition to the holiday and a vote for Helms.

Today, North Carolina Republicans quote Dr. King while walking in Jesse Helms’ footsteps.

Helms would be perfectly at home in Donald Trump’s Republican Party.

Like Trump, Helms was a racist.

Jim Hunt lost in 1984.

But he did the right and courageous thing.

I’m proud I was with him when he did it.