Jesse Helms won with 51.7% of the vote (1,156,768 votes), ahead of James B. Hunt Jr. with 47.8% (1,070,488 votes).
The margin between the first two candidates was 3.9 percentage points (86,280 votes). The party margin (Republican share minus Democratic share) was a Republican lead of 3.9 points.
Compared with the previous comparable race in the same area, the party margin moved 3.3 points toward Republicans.
2,239,051 votes were counted in this race, for 4 candidates or options.
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