The general election was fought between the Republican incumbent Jesse Helms and the Democratic nominee former mayor of Charlotte Harvey Gantt.

Helms won re-election to a fourth term by a slightly wider margin than the close election in 1984.

The election received renewed attention in 2020 with the release of ESPN miniseries The Last Dance, which mentioned Chicago Bulls superstar Michael Jordan refusing to endorse Gantt, who was seeking to become the first African-American to represent North Carolina - Jordan's home state - in the United States Senate.

[3] He ran an advertisement in which a white person was denied a job due to racial quotas.

Carter Wrenn, who was involved in the ad's creation, stated that "We played the race card".