North Carolina congressman who was briefly a senator

RALEIGH, N.C. — Jim Broyhill, a longtime North Carolina Republican congressman who served briefly in the U.S. Senate to fill a vacancy before losing a bid to keep the job, died Saturday. He was 95.

Mr. Broyhill, a scion of the Broyhill Furniture business in the North Carolina foothills that brought jobs and prestige to the region, died at Arbor Acres retirement home in Winston-Salem, according to his son, Ed. He had suffered from congestive heart failure for years that worsened in recent months, his son said Saturday.

The moderate Republican served more than 23 years in the House. He was considered a reliable conservative who helped North Carolina turn into a competitive two-party state, particularly as the GOP made national gains in the 1980s with Ronald Reagan.

In a video interview in honor of receiving a state award in 2015, Mr. Broyhill recalled the dearth of Republicans on the first state ballot he filled out in 1948. “I was determined that I’m going to do what I could to see if we could not develop a two-party system in our state,” Mr. Broyhill said. “And I think I had a great deal to accomplish that, but with the help and the leadership of many other people.”

GOP Gov. Jim Martin appointed Mr. Broyhill to replace Republican Sen. John East when East died by suicide in June 1986.

Mr. Broyhill had already won the Senate GOP primary a month earlier against David Funderburk, who had the support of Sen. Jesse Helms’ national organization that backed hardline Republicans.

The Senate appointment was viewed as an asset to help Mr. Broyhill in his fall general election against former Gov. Terry Sanford, a Democrat and outgoing Duke University president. Sanford narrowly defeated Mr. Broyhill in two elections that November — one to serve out the rest of 1986 and another for the next six years.

Expected initially to be a low-key affair, the campaign took on the intensity of a modern, more divisive campaign. Reagan came to Charlotte to campaign for Mr. Broyhill. In a recent interview, Mr. Martin said he’s unsure whether appointing Mr. Broyhill to the Senate ultimately aided his campaign.

“He wasn’t able to spend as much time campaigning because he was intensely dependable on fulfilling his Senate duties,” Mr. Martin said.

Mr. Broyhill’s Capitol Hill career began with a surprising U.S. House victory in 1962.

When Democrats attempted to redraw the district of the lone Republican in the House delegation after the 1960 census in hopes of defeating him, the adjoining district became more Republican, according to a biography of Mr. Martin. That opened the door for Mr. Broyhill, who had worked at the family business for close to two decades, to upset Democratic incumbent Hugh Quincy Alexander.

While he never served in a Republican-controlled chamber until his Senate appointment, Mr. Broyhill flexed his political muscles for Republican presidential administrations in the House and built support for their agendas with Democrats.