Jesse Helms was a Republican.
And, for his last terms in the US Senate, so was Strom Thurmond (SC - R). He was an FDR Democrat and was an officer in the 82nd at Normandy. In 1948 he ran for US President against Harry Truman on the Dixiecrat Ticket. In 1952 he endorsed Eisenhower over Adlai Stevenson but was elected SC Governor (1946-50) as a Democrat. He won a write-in election to the US Senate as a Democrat NOT endorsed by the SC Democrat Party in 1954. He switched to GOP in 1964 because of antagonism to the newly passed 1964 Civil Rights Act and because he favored Goldwater. He remained so until his death in 2003 at age 100.