Thirty years ago, North Carolina waged a Senate race that even today staggers the imagination.

The Senate race between Republican Sen. Jesse Helms and Democratic Gov. Jim Hunt was between the two major figures of North Carolina politics of recent decades.

The $26 million price tag ($60 million in today’s dollars) made it the most expensive in American history at that time. The TV ads ran 19 straight months, except for a weeklong 1983 Christmas truce.