Jesse Helms Center Foundation

Background

The Jesse Helms Center was initially founded in 1994 on the campus of Wingate University in Wingate, North Carlonia. The college is where the late former Sen. Jesse Helms (R-NC) attended school prior to his 1972 election to the U.S. Senate. The Center includes a library and museum dedicated to his career that includes serving as a city councilman for the city of Raleigh. ¹

The Center claims that it helps promote the conservative values and right-of-center advocacy of former Sen. Helms while advocating for right-of-center policy towards education, trade, health care, and free enterprise.  ³ In 2001, the Center was moved to Wingate’s A.J Fletcher Building, where it operates as of 2026. The building also contains a storage facility and a digital collection of media used by Sen. Helms.  ³

Programs

During construction and planning of the Jesse Helms Center, Sen. Helms claimed he did not want it to be a “dusty old museum” and advocated for renovations that included interactive and informational materials on his own right-of-center advocacy and conservative ideology.  ³

The Free Enterprise Leadership Challenge is a summer program offered by the Center that provides high school students from the United States and abroad with educational opportunities and training sessions to learn about conservative economic policy and developing business principles. Similar programs are offered to public visitors under its “Free Enterprise Now” curriculum.  ^{1  1}

The Jesse Helms Center also offers a series of educational lectures and personal discussion meant to, according to the website, “explore the conservative truth.” Specific lectures have focused on conservative views towards several policy topics such as foreign policy, human rights, government, and religion. ⁴ Those whom have given lectures through the Center include Robert Wilkie, the Secretary of Veterans Affairs in the first Trump administration; Marc Thiessen, a Fox News contributor and former chief speechwriter for then-President George W. Bush; Oliver North, former president of the National Rifle Association; and then-U.S. Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL).  ⁵

Through support from the John William Pope Foundation, the Jesse Helms Center hosts annual lectures on its home campus in North Carolina as well as in Washington, D.C. to discuss foreign policy. Speakers have included former Vice President Dick Cheney, former National Security Advisor John Bolton, and several members of Congress representing North Carolina. ⁶

In 2020, the Helms Center was one of several organizations to sign an open letter to then- Secretary of the Treasury Steven Mnuchin urging the Treasury Department to delay tax payment deadlines for Americans into 2021 due to the COVID-19 Pandemic, calling such payments a “fiscal cliff endangering our economic recovery.” Other signatories of the letter included the National Center for Public Policy Research and the James Madison Institute. ⁶

History

Jesse Helms was born October 28, 1921 in Monroe, North Carolina. He attended Wingate College (now Wingate University as of 2026) and began publishing sports articles for local outlets including the Monroe Enquirer, The Journal, and the Charlotte News. One year later, he transferred to Wake Forest and worked for additional outlets such as the Raleigh News & Observer and Raleigh Times until he dropped out of school to work full-time for the former. Helms joined the U.S. Navy following the attack on Pearl Harbor during World War II on December 7, 1941, serving as a Navy recruiter in Raleigh until the war’s end in 1945.  ^{3  7  8}

Between 1948 and the 1972, he served as a member of the Raleigh City Council, worked as a TV editorialist for WRAL in Raleigh, and allegedly wrote over 2,700 “Viewpoints” reports for WRAL between 1960 and 1970.  ^{7  8}

Helms would later be elected to the U.S. Senate in 1972, serving in the position for five six-year terms until 2003.  ⁸ In 1995, Helms became the chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, a role he would hold until Republicans lost the Senate majority in 2001. ⁸

Funding

The Jesse Helms Center receives funding from individuals, businesses, and foundations, with annual membership options starting at $100. Upper tier memberships include VIP tickets to events, special lectures, and dinners, along with “behind the scenes” tours of the archives. ⁹

The Louis DeJoy/Donald Wos Family Foundation has provided funding to the Helms Center, ¹⁰ as has the John William Pope Foundation. ⁶

Leadership

Brian Rogers is president of the Jesse Helms Center. Prior to working at the Center, he worked as executive director for Defenders of Property Rights and as director of special projects for the Leadership Institute. ¹¹

Jeff Atkinson is vice president of the Jesse Helms Center. He is a former news anchor, reporter, and producer for several television news affiliates in Missouri, West Virginia, and North Carolina. ¹²

John Dodd is the president emeritus of the Jesse Helms Center. In addition, he is the former president of consulting firm J&T Dodd, was a senior fellow for the American Leadership Forum and was a member of the Calvin Coolidge Presidential Foundation Scholars Review Jury. ¹³

Jimmy Broughton is the chairman of the board of directors for the Helms Center. He was chief of staff to then-Sen. Jesse Helms (R-NC) from 1991 to 2003. ¹⁴