[1] He then served in the United States Army Air Corps in the Pacific Theater during World War II.
[1] Under Lee, WFAI-AM became the first radio station in eastern North Carolina to air daily editorials shows hosted by Jesse Helms.
[1] He began his political career in 1964, when he ran unsuccessfully as a Republican candidate for a North Carolina Senate seat.
In 1971, Jack Lee won the nonpartisan Fayetteville mayoral election by defeating city councilman Denny Shaffer in a landslide.
Jack Lee focused on joining the leadership of the North Carolina Republican Party after leaving the mayoral office.
[2] The state Republican Party was deeply divided at the time between rival supporters of Gerald Ford and Ronald Reagan.
[1] Lee is widely credited with unifying the North Carolina Republican Party following a long period of political infighting.
[1] Under Lee, who believed that Republican themes would appeal to the state's conservative-leaning Democrats, Ronald Reagan won North Carolina in the 1980 presidential election.
[1] In 1983, President Reagan appointed Lee as the Federal Communications Commission's director of legislative affairs.