John Porter East

Who was John Porter East?

John Porter East was a Republican U.S. senator from the state of North Carolina from 1981 until his suicide in 1986.

A paraplegic since 1955, because of polio, East was a professor of political science at East Carolina University in Greenville and a protégé of conservative Senator Jesse Helms. East ran unsuccessfully for a vacancy in the United States House of Representatives in a special election in 1966, a race won by Walter B. Jones, Sr..

In 1980, with the benefit of Ronald Reagan's North Carolina influence, East narrowly defeated incumbent Democratic Senator Robert Burren Morgan, largely on the strength of political advertising about Morgan's involvement with the turnover of the Panama Canal to the government of Panama. In the Senate, he earned a reputation as a staunch social conservative, especially on the issue of abortion. Alongside Jesse Helms, East led opposition to the bill to create a federal holiday to honor Martin Luther King, Jr. in 1983. In 1986, he announced that he would not seek re-election, and would instead return to his teaching position. That summer, East, suffering from hypothyroidism, killed himself at his North Carolina home.