United States Senate election in North Carolina, 1996

United States Senate election in North Carolina, 1996

1990 ← 5 November 1996 → 2002

Nominee Jesse Helms Harvey Gantt Party Republican Democratic Popular vote 1,345,833 1,173,875 Percentage 52.6% 45.9%

Senator before election Jesse Helms Republican Elected Senator Jesse Helms Republican

The North Carolina United States Senate election of 1996 was held on 5 November 1996 as part of the nation-wide elections to the Senate, and coinciding with the 1996 presidential election. The general election was a rematch of the 1990 election: between the Republican incumbent Jesse Helms and the Democrat nominee Harvey Gantt. Helms won re-election to a fifth and final term by a slightly wider margin than in 1990.

Democratic primary

1996 North Carolina U.S. Senate Democratic primary election
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.

Results

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