The North Carolina United States Senate election of 1996 was held on 5 November 1996 as part of the nationwide elections to the Senate, and coinciding with the 1996 presidential election. The general election was a rematch of the 1990 election: between the Republican incumbent Jesse Helms and the Democrat nominee Harvey Gantt. Helms won re-election to a fifth and final term by a slightly wider margin than in 1990.