Editing Jesse Helms (section)

===1976 presidential election===
{{Main|1976 United States presidential election}}

Helms supported [[Ronald Reagan]] for the [[Republican Party (United States) presidential primaries, 1976|presidential nomination in 1976]], even before Reagan had announced his candidacy.<ref>Shirley (2005), p. 23</ref> His contribution was crucial in the North Carolina primary victory that paved the way for Reagan's presidential election in 1980. The support of Helms, alongside Raleigh-based campaign operative [[Thomas F. Ellis]], was instrumental in Reagan's winning the North Carolina primary and later presenting a major challenge to incumbent President [[Gerald Ford]] at the [[1976 Republican National Convention]]. According to author [[Craig Shirley]], the two men deserve credit "for breathing life into the dying Reagan campaign".<ref>Shirley (2005), p. 160</ref> Going into the primary, Reagan had lost all the primaries, including in New Hampshire, where he had been favored, and was two million dollars in debt, with a growing number of Republican leaders calling for his exit.<ref name="Craig Shirley 176">Shirley (2005), p. 176</ref> The Ford campaign was predicting a victory in North Carolina, but assessed Reagan's strength in the state simply: Helms's support.<ref>Shirley (2005), p. 61</ref> While Ford had the backing of Governor [[James Holshouser]],<ref>{{cite news |first=Fred |last=Emery |title=Do-or-die for the two main challengers in fickle North Carolina |work=[[The Times]] |page=8 |date=March 14, 1976 }}</ref> the grassroots movement formed in North Carolina by Ellis and backed by Helms delivered an upset victory by 53% to 47%.<ref>Shirley (2005), p. 175</ref> The momentum generated in North Carolina carried Ronald Reagan to landslide primary wins in Texas, California, and other critical states, evening the contest between Reagan and Ford, and forcing undeclared delegates to choose at the 1976 convention.

Later, Helms was not pleased by the announcement that Reagan, if nominated, would ask the 1976 Republican National Convention to make moderate [[Pennsylvania]] Senator [[Richard Schweiker]] his running mate for the general election,<ref>{{cite news |first=Fred |last=Emery |title=Choice of liberal outrages some of Mr Reagan's supporters |work=[[The Times]] |page=6 |date=July 28, 1976 }}</ref> but kept his objections to himself at the time.<ref name="Craig Shirley 275">Shirley (2005), p. 275</ref> According to Helms, after Reagan told him of the decision, Helms noted the hour because, "I wanted to record for posterity the exact time I received the shock of my life."<ref name="Craig Shirley 275"/> Helms and [[Strom Thurmond]] tried to make Reagan drop Schweiker for a conservative, perhaps either James Buckley<ref>{{cite news |first=Tom |last=Wicker |author-link=Tom Wicker |title=The Paradox in Kansas City |work=[[The New York Times]] |date=August 13, 1976 |page=18 }}</ref> or his brother [[William F. Buckley Jr.]], and rumors surfaced that Helms might run for vice president himself,<ref name="Craig Shirley 311">Shirley (2005), p. 311</ref> but Schweiker was kept. In the end, Reagan lost narrowly to Ford at the convention, while Helms received only token support for the vice presidential nomination, albeit enough to place him second, far behind Ford's choice of [[Bob Dole]]. The Convention adopted a broadly conservative platform, and the conservative faction came out acting like the winners, except Jesse Helms.<ref>{{cite news |first=Anthony |last=Lewis |author-link=Anthony Lewis |title=Aground on a Rock |work=[[The New York Times]] |date=August 19, 1976 |page=35 }}</ref>

Helms vowed to campaign actively for Ford across the South, regarding the conservative platform adopted at the convention to be a "mandate" on which Ford was pledging to run. However, he targeted [[Henry Kissinger]] after the latter issued a statement calling Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn a "threat to world peace", and Helms demanded that Kissinger embrace the platform or resign immediately.<ref>{{cite news |title=Helms Calls for Kissinger to Back Platform or Quit |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1976/09/09/118457728.pdf |work=[[The New York Times]] |date=September 9, 1976 |page=32 |access-date=July 9, 2009}}</ref> Helms continued to back Reagan, and the two remained close friends and political allies throughout Reagan's political career, although sometimes critical of each other.<ref name="Holmes, NYT 5 Jy">{{cite news | last = Holmes | first =Steven A. | title=Jesse Helms Dies at 86; Conservative Force in the Senate | work=[[The New York Times]] | date=July 5, 2008 | url=https://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/05/us/politics/00helms.html | access-date=July 12, 2008}}</ref> Despite Reagan's defeat at the convention, the intervention of Helms and Ellis arguably led to the most important conservative primary victory in the history of the Republican Party. This victory enabled Reagan to contest the 1976 Republican presidential nomination, and to win the next nomination at the [[1980 Republican National Convention]] and ultimately the [[presidency of the United States]].

According to Craig Shirley,
<blockquote>Had Reagan lost North Carolina, despite his public pronouncements, his revolutionary challenge to Ford, along with his political career, would have ended unceremoniously. He would have made a gracious exit speech, cut a deal with the Ford forces to eliminate his campaign debt, made a minor speech at the Kansas City Convention later that year, and returned to his ranch in Santa Barbara. He would probably have only reemerged to make speeches and cut radio commercials to supplement his income. And Reagan would have faded into political oblivion.<ref name="Craig Shirley 176"/></blockquote>