The election was a showdown between the Republican incumbent Jesse Helms and then-incumbent Democratic Governor Jim Hunt.

Hunt easily defeated businessman Thomas Allred, a supporter of Lyndon Larouche, to win the Democratic nomination.

[3] Hunt ran a campaign ad connecting Helms to death squads in El Salvador through his association with the Nationalist Republican Alliance, for whom Roberto d'Aubuisson had recently run for the President of El Salvador.

[3] In the short time before election day, however, the highly popular incumbent US President Ronald Reagan gave Helms a significant boost[4] by campaigning for him and running a local TV ad praising Helms and asking registered voters in North Carolina to re-elect him.

[6] This election is remembered as "one of North Carolina's most infamous political battles" and "as a prototype of the no-holds-barred brawls that typify a strand of modern-day partisan politics, polarizing voters along distinct ideological lines.