Martin registered as a member of the
Republican Party in 1961 or 1962. He later explained, "I joined with the minority party because I felt the south needed two-party competition." In 1966, he was elected to the
Mecklenburg County Board of Commissioners. He served for seven years, chairing the body from 1967 to 1968, and briefly in 1971. He was a president of the North Carolina Association of County Commissioners.
House of Representatives (1973–1985) He was elected to the
United States House of Representatives in 1972 representing the Charlotte-based
9th Congressional district. He served there for six terms. He served as a
Ways and Means Committee member, and as a House Republican Research Committee chairman. He became the first elected official to receive the
Charles Lathrop Parsons Award, given by the
American Chemical Society for outstanding
public service by an American chemist, in 1983. In 1984, with incumbent governor Jim Hunt leaving office due to the
term limit, Martin ran for the Republican nomination and won. He defeated
state attorney general Rufus Edmisten by a nine-point margin. He was helped by the coattails from
Ronald Reagan's landslide re-election victory. He was also helped when
Lieutenant Governor Jimmy Green endorsed him after being defeated by Edmisten in the Democratic primary. Green was from eastern North Carolina, and his endorsement helped Martin win support among conservative Democrats in that part of the state.
Governor of North Carolina (1985–1993) While most political figures running for office were prone to make promises covering a wide range of issues from education to health care, Martin made one promise that garnered a lot of attention; he said he would address all of the priorities in the state, but his only promise was that construction on
Interstate 40 from Raleigh to
Wilmington, North Carolina would be finished before he left office. The long-neglected and last leg of I-40 from
Barstow, California would open up the southeastern coastal area to the rest of the state. He was true to his promise; the last unfinished leg of I-40 was finished before the end of his first term. Martin was easily reelected in 1988, defeating Lieutenant Governor
Bob Jordan by 13 points. In so doing, he became the only member of his party to have been elected to two terms as governor of North Carolina. He was part of a 28-year trend of Governors of North Carolina who were named James, having been preceded and succeeded by
Jim Hunt, who in turn was preceded in his first term by
James Holshouser. ==Later life==