The North Carolina United States Senate election of 1990 was held on November 6, 1990, as part of the
nationwide elections to the Senate. The general election was fought between the
Republican
Republican can refer to:
Political ideology
* An advocate of a republic, a type of government that is not a monarchy or dictatorship, and is usually associated with the rule of law.
** Republicanism, the ideology in support of republics or agains ...
incumbent
Jesse Helms and the
Democratic nominee former
Mayor of Charlotte
The office of the Mayor of Charlotte, North Carolina
Charlotte ( ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of North Carolina. Located in the Piedmont region, it is the county seat of Mecklenburg County. The population was 874,579 a ...
Harvey Gantt. Helms won re-election to a fourth term by a slightly wider margin than the
close election in 1984.
Helms drew
controversy for airing what became known as the "
Hands" ad produced by
Alex Castellanos. It showed a pair of white
hands with the voiceover saying ''You wanted this job, but because of a law they had to give it to a minority.'' The ad prompted allegations of
racism
Racism is the belief that groups of humans possess different behavioral traits corresponding to inherited attributes and can be divided based on the superiority of one race over another. It may also mean prejudice, discrimination, or antagonis ...
.
The election received renewed attention in 2020 with the release of
ESPN
ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). Th ...
miniseries ''
The Last Dance'', which mentioned
Chicago Bulls
The Chicago Bulls are an American professional basketball team based in Chicago. The Bulls compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Eastern Conference Central Division. The team was founded on January ...
superstar
Michael Jordan refusing to endorse Gantt, who was seeking to become the first
African-American
African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ensl ...
to represent
North Carolina
North Carolina () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the 28th largest and 9th-most populous of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, Georgia and ...
- Jordan's home state - in the
United States Senate
The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress, with the House of Representatives being the lower chamber. Together they compose the national bicameral legislature of the United States.
The composition and pow ...
.
Primaries
Republican primary
Democratic primary
Results
See also
*
1990 United States Senate elections
Footnotes
{{Jesse Helms
1990
File:1990 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1990 FIFA World Cup is played in Italy; The Human Genome Project is launched; Voyager I takes the famous Pale Blue Dot image- speaking on the fragility of humanity on Earth, astrophysicist ...
North Carolina
North Carolina () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the 28th largest and 9th-most populous of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, Georgia and ...
Jesse Helms
1990 North Carolina elections