Williamson, Samuel R.

James Baxter Hunt Jr. served as Democratic governor of North Carolina from 1977 to 1985 and from 1993 to 2001. In 1984, he ran as the Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate but lost to Republican incumbent Jesse Helms. The North Carolina Senate race was characterized as one of the most important in the country at the time, and was one of the most brutal and personal of Hunt's career. Samuel R. Williamson served as Hunt's unpaid campaign director for defense and foreign policy issues during the senatorial run.

Hunt graduated from North Carolina State College (now University) in Raleigh, N.C., in 1959 with a Bachelor's degree in agricultural education and again in 1962 with a Master's degree in agricultural economics. In 1964, he graduated from the University of North Carolina School of Law. After his career as an elected official, Hunt practiced law with Womble Carlyle Sandridge and Rice, a law firm based in Winston-Salem, N.C., and was practicing as of 2010. Hunt and his wife Carolyn Joyce Leonard Hunt have four children: Rebecca, Rachel, Elizabeth, and James Baxter III.

From the guide to the Samuel R. Williamson's Notebook on James B. Hunt's Senate Campaign, 1983-1984, (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Library. Southern Historical Collection.)