Hayes, who faces Democratic challenger Mike Taylor of Albemarle, officially opened the campaign in his hometown, and he wasted no time ringing up an endorsement that scores big with Republicans in Cabarrus County — Sen. Jesse Helms.

After Concord Mayor George Liles presented Helms with a key to the city, the state’s senior senator got right on the stump for Hayes, lauding the freshman congressman’s faith and his “remarkable” first-term record.

“Some people do a lot of talking, but Robin Hayes does a lot of working, and I’m proud of him,” Helms said. “So many people will sell the country down the river for a few bucks ... but I’ll tell you one thing about this guy — he is going to paddle the country back up that river.”

Helms kept his remarks brief, but said that his hometown newspaper “pointed out that I don’t make many appearances like this, and I don’t.” Helms, who had to be helped to the podium, has been diagnosed with peripheral neuropathy, a nerve disease that numbs his feet and makes it difficult for him to walk.

After the speeches, the five-term senator said that Hayes’ seat is critical.

“Every seat is critical this year, because the other side feels the same way about it,” he said. “I want folks like him to do the governing.”

Hayes, who called Helms “the greatest American that I know,” counts the senator among his constituents. And he said the constituents are the reason he wants to go to Washington in the first place.

“Being a congressman is about people,” Hayes told the crowd of around 200 supporters. “It’s about helping you and your family untangle this mass of red tape that is the federal government.”

He cited examples of how his office has helped people in his district by working to free government payments and helping an American woman marry her English fiance. And he said there’s still work to do in some areas, such as trade with China.

The House of Representatives passed a measure in May to extend permanent trade relations to China. It is expected to pass the Senate — where Helms vows to vehemently oppose it anyway — and that has Hayes worried about jobs.

He said that when he went to work at his family’s Cannon Mills in the late 1960s, there were 18,000 textile jobs in Kannapolis alone. That number has fallen to about 6,000, and it is “going down every day, that’s the bad news.”

Hayes countered the permanent trade status measure with one of his own, titled the “Fairness in Textile Trade Act of 2000,” which would require countries to open their own markets to the extent that the U.S. does to their products.

The bill would also impose sanctions on companies or nations that break trade agreements and provide training and health insurance to workers who lose their jobs because of new trade agreements.

“I think we need to take a real strong stand on behalf of our people,” Hayes said of his bill, which hasn’t been heard in the House. “I represent the 8th District. I don’t represent China, and I don’t represent the (Clinton) administration.”

Before the speeches, Sno Cones, popcorn, clowns’ painting children’s faces and a NASCAR race car emblazoned with “Hayes for Congress” fueled the festival-like atmosphere.

Red, white and blue balloons, banners and signs proclaimed that “Rockin’ Robin” Hayes works for the people and is to be trusted.

On a cyclical recording, Kool and the Gang belted out “Celebration,” Natalie Merchant warbled “These Are the Days” and the Chicago Bulls pre-game song heightened the crowd’s anticipation.

Hayes, Helms and Rep. J.D. Hayworth — a High Point native, N.C. State graduate and Arizona congressman — and GOP gubernatorial candidate Richard Vinroot rode into Spitfire Aviation’s hangar at Concord Regional Airport on a camouflaged golf cart.

After the National Anthem, Vinroot, who asked Hayes to introduce him Saturday at the state GOP convention in Greensboro, told the crowd that Hayes is one of a handful of first-term Republicans targeted by the Democratic Party.

“This is the kind of man that we want representing us in the halls of Congress,” he said. “It is the most critical election this year that we send Robin back to Congress.”

And Hayworth, who praised Hayes for pushing for research into medical uses for tobacco and supporting his bill to sell non-environmentally sensitive federal land to school systems at $10 per acre, told they crowd they’d have to help do it.

“The good news is, Robin has the money to win this campaign,” he said. “The bad news is, some of it is still in your pockets.”

Hayes told the crowd he’d need all their support to defeat Taylor a second time. Hayes and Taylor fought a close election over the seat — held for more than two decades by retired Congressman Bill Hefner, a Democrat — in 1998.