James Baxter Hunt Jr. (born May 16, 1937) is an American politician and retired attorney who was the 69th and 71st governor of North Carolina (1977–1985, and 1993–2001).

[1] Hunt is tied with former Ohio governor Jim Rhodes for the sixth-longest gubernatorial tenure in post-Constitutional U.S. history at 5,838 days.

It raised the job's salary from $5,000 to $30,000 per year, increased the office operating budget, and expanded its staff from two to five.

He was first elected governor in 1976 over Republican David Flaherty and was re-elected in 1980, defeating I. Beverly Lake.

[10] In 1984 he lost a bitterly contested race for the Senate seat held by Jesse Helms, and left elective politics for eight years.

He returned in 1992 and defeated Republican lieutenant governor and Hardee's executive Jim Gardner to win the governorship.

He left office in January 2001, and was replaced by fellow Democrat, Attorney General Mike Easley.

[12] Hunt served on the Carnegie Task Force, which created the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards and more recently on the Spellings Commission on the Future of Higher Education.

By the late 1970s, their case had gained international attention and was viewed as an embarrassment to the US and North Carolina in particular.

Howard Nathaniel Lee, however, refused to resign from his appointed role as cabinet secretary, as a form of protest against Hunt.

When Reagan Administration Surgeon General Dr. C. Everett Koop accused the tobacco industry of directing advertising at children and threatening human lives, Hunt called for his impeachment.

[16] Hunt founded and is chair emeritus of the Institute for Emerging Issues at N.C. State University in Raleigh.