James B. Hunt, Jr.
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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). He is the longest-serving governor in the state's history. Hunt is tied with former Ohio governor
Jim Rhodes James Allen Rhodes (September 13, 1909 – March 4, 2001) was an American attorney and Republican politician who served as the 61st and 63rd Governor of Ohio from 1963 to 1971 and from 1975 to 1983. Rhodes was one of only seven U.S. governors ...
for the sixth-longest gubernatorial tenure in post-Constitutional U.S. history at days. He is also the father of current North Carolina Lieutenant Governor
Rachel Hunt Rachel Henderson Hunt (born May 19, 1965) is an American politician who has served as the 36th Lieutenant Governor of North Carolina since 2025 under Governor Josh Stein. A Democrat, Hunt previously was a member of the North Carolina State S ...
. Many credit Hunt and his leadership example being a major reason why, in contrast to many ex-Confederate and border states, North Carolina's Democratic Party has managed to stay relevant in state politics from
Ronald Reagan Ronald Wilson Reagan (February 6, 1911 – June 5, 2004) was an American politician and actor who served as the 40th president of the United States from 1981 to 1989. He was a member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party a ...
's presidency through 2024.


Early life

Hunt was born on May 16, 1937, in
Greensboro, North Carolina Greensboro (; ) is a city in Guilford County, North Carolina, United States, and its county seat. At the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, its population was 299,035; it was estimated to be 307,381 in 2024. It is the List of municipalitie ...
to James Baxter Hunt, a soil conservationist, and Elsie Brame Hunt, a schoolteacher. When he was a child, the family moved to a farm outside of
Wilson, North Carolina Wilson is a city in and the county seat of Wilson County, North Carolina, United States. It is the List of municipalities in North Carolina, 23rd-most populous city in North Carolina. Located about east of the capital city of Raleigh, North Car ...
. He was raised in the
Free Will Baptist Church Free Will Baptists or Free Baptists are a group originating from General Baptists that emphasizes the teaching of free salvation and free will. The movement can be traced back to the General Baptists in 17th century England. In 1702, Paul Palme ...
but later converted to
Presbyterianism Presbyterianism is a historically Reformed Protestant tradition named for its form of church government by representative assemblies of elders, known as "presbyters". Though other Reformed churches are structurally similar, the word ''Pr ...
. He is a graduate of North Carolina State College, now known as
North Carolina State University North Carolina State University (NC State, North Carolina State, NC State University, or NCSU) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Raleigh, North Carolina, United States. Founded in 1887 and p ...
, with a B.S. in agricultural education and a M.S. in agricultural economics. During his undergraduate career, Hunt was involved in Student Government. He was the second student to serve two terms as
Student Body President The student government president (sometimes called a student body president, student council president, or simply a school president) is generally the highest-ranking officer of a student union. While a student government group and a class presi ...
of NC State. His master's thesis was about economic analysis of different tobacco production techniques. In 1964, he received a J.D. from the
University of North Carolina School of Law The University of North Carolina School of Law (branded as Carolina Law) is the law school of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Established in 1845, it is one of the oldest law schools in the United States and is the oldest law sch ...
. He went on to serve as the president of the Young Democratic Clubs of North Carolina, now known as the Young Democrats of North Carolina.


Political career

From 1964 to 1966, Hunt was a
Ford Foundation The Ford Foundation is an American private foundation with the stated goal of advancing human welfare. Created in 1936 by Edsel Ford and his father Henry Ford, it was originally funded by a $25,000 (about $550,000 in 2023) gift from Edsel Ford. ...
economic advisor in
Nepal Nepal, officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal, is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is mainly situated in the Himalayas, but also includes parts of the Indo-Gangetic Plain. It borders the Tibet Autonomous Region of China Ch ...
. After working on several state and national campaigns for Democratic candidates and attending several Democratic conventions as a delegate, in addition to his work with the North Carolina Young Democratic Clubs, in 1972 he ran successfully for
lieutenant governor A lieutenant governor, lieutenant-governor, or vice governor is a high officer of state, whose precise role and rank vary by jurisdiction. Often a lieutenant governor is the deputy, or lieutenant, to or ranked under a governor — a "second-in-comm ...
. He was sworn in on January 5, 1973. With the election of
James Holshouser James Eubert Holshouser Jr. (October 8, 1934 – June 17, 2013) was an American lawyer and politician who served as the 68th Governor of North Carolina from 1973 to 1977. He was the first Republican candidate to be elected as governor of the ...
as governor in 1972—the first Republican to win the office in decades—the Democratic majority in the General Assembly was compelled to raise the stature of the office of the lieutenant governor. 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. Hunt was first sworn in as
Governor of North Carolina The governor of North Carolina is the head of government of the United States, U.S. state of North Carolina. Seventy-five people have held the office since the first state governor, Richard Caswell, took office in 1777. The governor serves a ...
on January 8, 1977. He is the only Governor of North Carolina to have been elected to four terms. He was first elected governor in 1976 over Republican David Flaherty and was re-elected in 1980, defeating I. Beverly Lake. Hunt supported a constitutional change during his first term that allowed him to be the first North Carolina governor to run for a second consecutive term. In 1981 Hunt chaired the Hunt Commission, named after himself, which established
superdelegate In American politics, a superdelegate is a delegate to a presidential nominating convention who is seated automatically. In Democratic National Conventions, superdelegates—described in formal party rules as the party leaders and electe ...
s in the
Democratic National Convention The Democratic National Convention (DNC) is a series of presidential nominating conventions held every four years since 1832 by the United States Democratic Party. They have been administered by the Democratic National Committee since the 18 ...
. In 1984 he lost a bitterly contested race for the Senate seat held by
Jesse Helms Jesse Alexander Helms Jr. (October 18, 1921 – July 4, 2008) was an American politician. A leader in the Conservatism in the United States, conservative movement, he served as a senator from North Carolina from 1973 to 2003. As chairman of the ...
, and left elective politics for eight years. He returned in 1992 and defeated Republican lieutenant governor and
Hardee's Hardee's Restaurants LLC is an American Fast food restaurant, fast-food restaurant chain operated by CKE Restaurants, CKE Restaurants Holdings, Inc. ("CKE") with locations primarily in the Southern and Midwestern United States. The company has ...
executive Jim Gardner to win the governorship. Hunt was re-elected by a large margin over future US Congressman
Robin Hayes Robert Cannon "Robin" Hayes (born August 14, 1945) is an American politician and businessman from North Carolina. A member of the Republican Party, he represented North Carolina's 8th congressional district in the House of Representatives from ...
in 1996. He left office in January 2001, and was replaced by fellow Democrat, Attorney General
Mike Easley Michael Francis Easley (born March 23, 1950) is an American lawyer and politician who served as the List of Governors of North Carolina, 72nd governor of North Carolina from 2001 to 2009. He is the first governor of North Carolina to have been ...
.


Actions and political views

In the 1970s Governor Hunt was a supporter of the
Equal Rights Amendment The Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) was a proposed amendment to the Constitution of the United States, United States Constitution that would explicitly prohibit sex discrimination. It is not currently a part of the Constitution, though its Ratifi ...
and, with his wife
Carolyn Carolyn is a female given name, a variant of Caroline. Other spellings include Carolin, Karolyn, Carolyne, Carolynn or Carolynne. Caroline itself is one of the feminine forms of Charles. List of notable people * Carolyn Bennett (born 1950 ...
, he urged its approval by the state legislature (which failed to ratify it by two votes) and appointed Betty Ray McCain as his chief lobbyist for the amendment. Hunt was an early proponent of teaching standards and early childhood education, gaining national recognition for the Smart Start program for
pre-kindergarten Pre-kindergarten (also called pre-K or PK) is a voluntary classroom-based preschool program for children below the age of five in the United States, Canada, Turkey and Greece (when kindergarten starts). It may be delivered through a preschool ...
ers. In his book, ''First in America: An Education Governor Challenges North Carolina'', Hunt says that under testing and accountability measures he put into place test scores went up. He says 56% of students were proficient in 1994 compared with 70% in the year 2000. He says without testing students slip through the cracks and face a "limited future" (p. 55). In 2000 he was mentioned as a possible Democratic nominee for Vice President of the United States or Education Secretary for
Al Gore Albert Arnold Gore Jr. (born March 31, 1948) is an American former politician, businessman, and environmentalist who served as the 45th vice president of the United States from 1993 to 2001 under President Bill Clinton. He previously served as ...
had Gore been successful in the 2000 presidential race. 2004 Democratic nominee Sen.
John Kerry John Forbes Kerry (born December 11, 1943) is an American attorney, politician, and diplomat who served as the 68th United States secretary of state from 2013 to 2017 in the Presidency of Barack Obama#Administration, administration of Barac ...
was likewise considering Hunt for Secretary of Education had he won, and he was considered a candidate to be
Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II (born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who was the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, he was the first African American president in American history. O ...
's Secretary of Education. Hunt served on the Carnegie Task Force, which created the
National Board for Professional Teaching Standards The National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS) is a Nonpartisanism, nonpartisan, Non-profit organization, nonprofit organization in the United States. Founded in 1987, NBPTS develops and maintains advanced standards for educators ...
and more recently on the Spellings Commission on the Future of Higher Education. As governor, Hunt was involved in a variety of efforts to promote technology and technology-based economic development, including the establishment of the North Carolina Biotechnology Center, and the
North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics The North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics (NCSSM) is a two-year, public residential high school with two physical campuses located in Durham, North Carolina, and Morganton, North Carolina, that focuses on the intensive study of scie ...
. He was also very successful at recruiting business to his state. Hunt was key actor in the trial of the
Wilmington Ten The Wilmington Ten were nine young men and a woman who were wrongfully convicted in 1971 in Wilmington, North Carolina, United States, of arson and conspiracy. Most were sentenced to 29 years in prison, and all ten served nearly a decade in jail ...
. By the late 1970s, their case had gained international attention and was viewed as an embarrassment to the US and North Carolina in particular.
CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS (an abbreviation of its original name, Columbia Broadcasting System), is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainme ...
had broadcast a ''60 Minute'' piece about the case that suggested that the evidence against the ten had been fabricated. In January 1978, following the higher courts' refusal to dismiss these charges, Hunt decided to reduce their sentencing of 20–25 years to 13–17 years rather than pardon and free them. Many black North Carolinian politicians at the time disapproved of Hunt's decision but the general mentality at the time was that "right now blacks have nowhere else to turn" so there was no organized opposition movement. Howard Nathaniel Lee, however, refused to resign from his appointed role as cabinet secretary, as a form of protest against Hunt. Hunt was criticized for allowing
Darryl Hunt Darryl Hunt (February 24, 1965 – March 13, 2016) was an African-American man from Winston-Salem, North Carolina, who, in 1984, was wrongfully convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment for the rape and the murder of Deborah Sykes, a young wh ...
(no relation known) to remain in prison for 20 years after the wrongfully convicted Winston-Salem man was exonerated by exculpatory DNA evidence which pointed to another perpetrator. Darryl Hunt was pardoned by the succeeding governor, Mike Easley. During his terms in office Hunt oversaw 13 executions (two during his first period in office, 11 during his second), including the first post- Furman execution of a female (
Velma Barfield Margie Velma Barfield (née Bullard; October 29, 1932 – November 2, 1984) was an American serial killer who was convicted of one murder but was linked to seven murders in total. She became the first woman in the United States to be executed af ...
) and the first post-Furman execution in North Carolina ( James W. Hutchins). Hunt was a proponent of North Carolina's tobacco industry, even after the negative health effects of tobacco use became clear. When Reagan Administration Surgeon General Dr.
C. Everett Koop Charles Everett Koop (October 14, 1916 – February 25, 2013) was an American pediatric surgeon and public health administrator who served as the 13th surgeon general of the United States under President Ronald Reagan from 1982 to 1989. According ...
accused the tobacco industry of directing advertising at children and threatening human lives, Hunt called for his impeachment.


Retirement

Hunt founded and is chair emeritus of the Institute for Emerging Issues at N.C. State University in Raleigh. In 2001 Hunt founded the James B. Hunt Jr. Institute for Educational Leadership & Policy Foundation, Inc., commonly known a
The Hunt Institute
The organization's mission is to secure America's future through quality education, and is dedicated to empowering governors, policymakers, and other educational leaders in the development and implementation of comprehensive strategies for the transformation of public education.


Personal life

Hunt has been married to Carolyn Leonard Hunt since 1958 and they have a son ( James Baxter Hunt III) and three daughters (including former State Senator and current
Lieutenant Governor of North Carolina The lieutenant governor of North Carolina is the second-highest elected official in the U.S. state of North Carolina and is the only elected official to have powers in both the legislative and executive branches of state government. A member of ...
Rachel Hunt Rachel Henderson Hunt (born May 19, 1965) is an American politician who has served as the 36th Lieutenant Governor of North Carolina since 2025 under Governor Josh Stein. A Democrat, Hunt previously was a member of the North Carolina State S ...
).


Electoral history


1972 North Carolina Lt. Gubernatorial Election


1976 North Carolina Gubernatorial Election The 1976 North Carolina gubernatorial election was held on November 2, 1976. Democratic nominee Jim Hunt defeated Republican nominee David T. Flaherty with 64.99% of the vote. This election marked the last time an incumbent North Carolina g ...


1980 North Carolina Gubernatorial Election


1984 North Carolina Senatorial Election


1992 North Carolina Gubernatorial Election The 1992 North Carolina gubernatorial election was held on November 3, 1992. Incumbent Governor James G. Martin was unable to run for a third consecutive term due to term limits, and his Lieutenant Governor, Jim Gardner, was chosen to repl ...


1996 North Carolina Gubernatorial Election The 1996 North Carolina gubernatorial election was held on 5 November 1996. The general election was fought between the Democratic nominee, incumbent Governor James "Jim" Hunt and the Republican nominee, state representative Robin Hayes. ...

Jim Hunt ran unopposed in the Democratic primary.


Legacy

The following are named for Governor Hunt: *James B. Hunt, Jr. Institute for Educational Leadership & Policy Foundation, Inc. * James B. Hunt Jr. Library at North Carolina State University Centennial Campus *James B. Hunt High School in
Wilson County, North Carolina Wilson County, officially the County of Wilson, is a county located in the U.S. state of North Carolina. As of the 2020 census, the population was 78,784. The county seat is Wilson. The county comprises the Wilson, NC Micropolitan Statistic ...
*James B. Hunt Jr. Residence Hall at
North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics The North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics (NCSSM) is a two-year, public residential high school with two physical campuses located in Durham, North Carolina, and Morganton, North Carolina, that focuses on the intensive study of scie ...
*James B. Hunt Horse Complex at the North Carolina State Fairgrounds is used year-round for horse shows and other agricultural exhibitions. * The M/V ''Gov. James B. Hunt Jr.'' is the primary ferry on the
Currituck Sound Currituck Sound ()
, from the North Carolina Collection's website at the
North Carolina Department of Transportation Ferry Division The North Carolina Department of Transportation Ferry Division is a branch of NCDOT that is responsible for the operation of over two dozen ferry services that transport passengers and vehicles to several islands along the Outer Banks of North Car ...
*Hunt Hall (dormitory) at the
University of North Carolina at Charlotte The University of North Carolina at Charlotte (UNC Charlotte, or simply Charlotte) is a public research university in Charlotte, North Carolina, United States. UNC Charlotte offers 24 doctoral, 66 master's, and 79 bachelor's degree programs thr ...
An authorized biography of Hunt, authored by former press secretary Gary Pearce, was released in the fall of 2010. In 2024, daughter
Rachel Rachel () was a Bible, Biblical figure, the favorite of Jacob's two wives, and the mother of Joseph (Genesis), Joseph and Benjamin, two of the twelve progenitors of the tribes of Israel. Rachel's father was Laban (Bible), Laban. Her older siste ...
, who since 2018 served in both the North Carolina House and the
North Carolina Senate The North Carolina Senate is the Upper house, upper chamber of the North Carolina General Assembly, which along with the North Carolina House of Representatives—the lower chamber—comprises the state legislature of North Carolina. The Senate ...
, would succeed her father in being elected to a North Carolina statewide office when she was elected Lieutenant Governor of North Carolina; in addition, Rachel was also the first Democrat to get elected Lieutenant Governor of North Carolina since 2008.


See also

* List of North Carolina Governors


References


Works cited

* *


Further reading

* Grimsley, Wayne. ''James B. Hunt: A North Carolina Progressive'' (2003) scholarly biography


External links


News & Observer profile

Womble Carlyle Sandridge & Rice, PLLC BiographyGuide to the James B. Hunt Papers 1971-1997, 2012Past Winners of Harold W. McGraw, Jr. Prize in Education
* Oral History Interviews with James B. Hun

fro
Oral Histories of the American South

James B. Hunt Political Campaign Audiovisual Material, 1980–1997
* , - , - , - , - , - , - , - , - , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Hunt, Jim 1937 births Living people 20th-century American lawyers 20th-century North Carolina politicians American Presbyterians American expatriates in Nepal Candidates in the 1984 United States elections Converts to Presbyterianism Democratic Party governors of North Carolina Former Baptists Jim Lieutenant governors of North Carolina North Carolina State University alumni People from Wilson, North Carolina