Incumbent Republican Thad Cochran won re-election to a second term over former Democratic Governor William Winter. Montana Incumbent Max Baucus ran for re-election. He easily won renomination in the Democratic primary, and advanced to the general election, where he faced Chuck Cozzens, a former State Representative and the Republican nominee. Despite President Ronald Reagan's strong performance in the state that year, Baucus was able to easily win a second term over Cozzens. Nebraska Incumbent Democrat J. James Exon won re-election to a second term over Republican businesswoman Nancy Hoch. New Hampshire Incumbent Republican Gordon J. Humphrey won re-election to a second term over Democratic U.S. Representative Norman D'Amours. New Jersey Incumbent Democrat Bill Bradley ran for re-election to a second term, defeating Republican Mayor of Montclair Mary V. Mochary. New Mexico Incumbent Republican Pete Domenici ran for re-election to a third term, defeating Democrat Judith Pratt. North Carolina The election was fought between the Republican incumbent Jesse Helms and Democratic Governor Jim Hunt. Helms won the election, the most expensive non-presidential election in United States history up to that point, by a margin significantly reduced from that that Helms achieved in 1978. Hunt had a commanding lead in opinion polls for much of the campaign, with one poll in 1983 putting him nineteen points clear of Helms. However, that was changed by the most bitterly contested election in the country that year. Hunt ran a campaign ad connecting Helms to death squads in El Salvador through his association with the Nationalist Republican Alliance, for whom Roberto d'Aubuisson had recently run for the President of El Salvador. In the short time before election day, however, the highly popular incumbent US President Ronald Reagan gave Helms a significant boost by campaigning for him and running a local TV ad praising Helms and asking registered voters in North Carolina to re-elect him. The election cost a total of $26,379,483 in total reported spending (over twelve times as much as the 1980 race), of which, 64% ($16.9m) was spent by Helms. Voters Education Project (VEP) in Atlanta study showed that Helms received 63 percent of the white vote and was particularly successful in small towns and rural areas, while receiving less than 1 percent of the black vote in 35 almost-all-black precincts. "Hunt got 37 percent of the white and 98.8 percent of the black vote, according to VEP. But only 61 percent of