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Carter Wrenn traces the 'Trail of the Serpent'

By Carter Wrenn, Published: December 9, 2024

Back in 1975, I met Ronald Reagan at a dinner in Raleigh. That fall he ran for President — I ran his North Carolina primary, working with Jesse Helms (one of two U.S. senators who endorsed Reagan) and Tom Ellis (Reagan’s North Carolina chairman).

Reagan lost the first five primaries to Gerald Ford — his campaign split into warring camps with Tom Ellis on one side and John Sears, the lobbyist heading Reagan’s campaign, on the other.

We parted ways with Sears, took Reagan’s North Carolina primary down a new road. Due to a 30-minute film – and one issue – Reagan won.

We met with Reagan’s Chairmen in Texas, California, other states, told them the road we’d followed to beat Ford – winning more primaries, Reagan closed on Ford. But in the end lost by a hundred votes at the Republican National Convention in Kansas City.

In 1978, Jesse ran for reelection. Using direct mail we raised more money than had ever been raised in a Senate election, built a political juggernaut with donors in every state — two years later ran one of the first independent campaigns to elect Reagan.

A week before the 1980 election Reagan was neck n’ neck with Jimmy Carter, an invisible hand moved on election night. Reagan swept 44 states.

In 1984, Jim Hunt, the only man elected governor four times, ran against Jesse Helms for Senate. Jesse trailed by 25 points – nothing we did for a year worked then, out of a clear blue sky, a gift fell into our lap.

After Reagan was wounded Tip O’Neill went to the hospital, knelt by Reagan’s bed, said a prayer. Reagan and O’Neill fought for years but, at the same time, treated each other with mutual respect.

The Berlin Wall fell. The Cold War ended. A political era passed. A new era began – that changed politics.

Trump beat Hilary. Covid struck. Biden beat Trump. Trump ran again. Biden got out. Trump called Harris ‘dumb as a rock’. She called him ‘a fascist.’ He called her ‘a communist.’

Mutual respect flew out the window. Lies were once taboo in politics – now people cheer lies.

History, once a lodestar, is all but forgotten today. Hardly a soul remembers the fear felt during the Cold War, when the Soviet Union launching a nuclear missile spelled Armageddon.

In my memoir, I tell how that fear gave birth to a river of people that elected Reagan; about the rise of conservative politics under Reagan; how, after we won the Cold War, a long decline started – led to Trump and Biden; and stories about faith – how Reagan lying on a hospital gurney said a prayer for the man who shot him.

Living in a fallen world we inherit ‘some flow’rets of Eden’ but as poet Thomas Moore added, ‘The trail of the serpent is over them all.'

In my memoir, I follow "The Trail of the Serpent" twisting and turning through politics — from Reagan to Trump.

A Republican strategist, Carter Wrenn has worked with candidates for president, Senate, and Congress. His book, "The Trail of the Serpent: Tales from the Smoke-filled Rooms of Politics," is out now.