Well, I've been on the perimeter of politics, I guess, all my life, all
my adult life. As you know, I was a Democrat by registration until
September of 1970, even though I never voted for a Democrat nominee for
president. Never had that experience. I was in Washington two or three
years in the early fifties as administrative assistant to two Democratic
senators, as you know, and when the conservative faction of the
Democratic Party prevailed in North Carolina, I did do some work for the
party. I did some writing, I wrote speeches for a number of prominent
Democrats from time to time, helped in other ways. But the party veered
so far to the left nationally, and was taken over by the people whom I'd
describe as substantially left of center in North Carolina. And I think
I felt, as many other Democrats felt and feel, that really I had no real
faith in the party. But I didn't do anything about it. Changing parties,
changing party registration, is like moving from a church. But President
Nixon's speech at Kansas State, I think it was, persuaded me that maybe
the Republican Party in North Carolina and in the nation had a chance to
restore the two-party system. Not merely in terms of electing a
president, but in getting a Congress that could be reasonably expected
to pull us back to the point of fiscal sanity. And in other matters.
So I quietly switched my registration, with no idea
Page 2 at
all of ever being a candidate. I thought I would be able to contribute
something, perhaps, to this two-party system. I'd done a little writing,
or other things. And then, as soon as my registration switch had been
made public, delegations of citizens—most of them
Democrats—started coming to see me, and they wanted me to run
for the Senate. And I laughed at them. The idea seemed absurd to me in
terms of any real possibility, and in any case, I had a good job which I
enjoyed. And I sent them away, with gratitude, of course, for the
compliment. But it persisted. And finally, along about the first of
January there came a group of people, Republicans and Democrats, with
the same story. And they were so persistent that finally I said, "Well,
you folks would like for me to run, but you know that I don't have a
chance to win the Republican nomination, being in the party just a
little over a year." They said, "Well, you're wrong about that. We think
that you'd be surprised at the support you'd have if you would just come
out." And I said, "Well, I don't agree with you." So as a parting shot,
one of them said, "Would you object to our sending out some letters to
test what might be the strength that you would have?" I said, "Well,
you're going to invalidate what I've said to you, waste your postage and
your time, but you can do that if you'd like. Just so long as it does
not imply any commitment to run." Well, they sent out, as I recall,
about four thousand letters of the customary type, saying that Jesse
might run if you write to him and get three or four of your other
friends to write. And maybe send him a dollar or two, on the condition
that it be sent back to you if he does not run. Well, I thought that was
the end of it, but within about two weeks we had, as I recall, about
fifteen thousand pieces of mail and about $19,000 or $20,000 worth of
money. And then I began to look at it seriously, and ultimately I got
into it. That's a long answer to your question, but you asked for
it.