campaign. New Mexico Incumbent Republican Pete Domenici ran for re-election to a fifth term and faced no Republican opposition. Art Trujillo defeated Eric Treisman in the Democratic primary. Domenici defeated Trujilo in a landslide, 65%-30%. North Carolina The election was a rematch of the 1990 election: between the Republican incumbent Jesse Helms and the Democratic nominee Harvey Gantt. Gantt won the Democratic primary over Charles Sanders. Helms was unopposed. Helms won re-election to a fifth and final term by a slightly wider margin than in 1990. Jesse Helms won the Republican Party's nomination unopposed. Oklahoma Incumbent Republican Jim Inhofe won re-election to his first full term over Democratic businessman James Boren. He improved upon his margin in 1994 in the special election for the remainder of Democrat David Boren's term. Both candidates were unopposed in the primary. Oregon Oregon had two elections due to a resignation, one in January, and then a second in November. Oregon (special) A special election was held on January 30, 1996 to fill the seat vacated by Republican Bob Packwood, who had resigned October 1, 1995 due to sexual misconduct allegations. In the primaries held on December 5, 1995, Democratic U. S. Representative Ron Wyden and Republican President of the Oregon State Senate Gordon H. Smith were nominated. Wyden narrowly defeated fellow U.S. Representative Peter DeFazio in the Democratic primary, while Smith won by a large margin, with the next closest candidate being Norma Paulus. Wyden then defeated Smith in the general election by just over one percentage point. Smith would win the regularly-scheduled election to the Senate later that year and serve alongside Wyden until 2009, when he was succeeded by Democrat Jeff Merkley. Oregon (regular) Incumbent Republican Mark Hatfield decided to retire after thirty years in the Senate. Oregon State Senate President Gordon H. Smith, who had run for the Senate earlier that year, won the Republican primary with nominal opposition, while businessman Tom Bruggere won a contested Democratic primary over Harry Lonsdale, who had run in two previous Senate elections and was the Democratic nominee in 1990. The contest between Smith and Bruggere was one of the toughest that year, but ultimately, Smith was able to keep the seat in the Republican column and defeated Bruggere by a four-point margin. This was the second Senatorial race for Gordon Smith in 1996; he had previously lost to Ron Wyden in the special election