One of the challenges of being a swing state is that presidential campaigns tend to suck up a lot of attention in North Carolina to the detriment of other important statewide races on the ballot that don’t get as much coverage. In an ongoing series, we’ll break down the statewide races here, on the WUNC Politics Podcast and in the WUNC Politics Newsletter.
This year, there is one seat up for election on the seven-member North Carolina Supreme Court. This body is much like the U.S. Supreme Court, except that it hears state-level cases, while SCOTUS in Washington, D.C., hears federal cases.
Republicans currently hold a 5-to-2 majority on the state's highest court, and they’re looking to unseat incumbent Justice Allison Riggs to leave just one Democrat on the court. Democrats hope to get Riggs elected to a full eight-year term over her challenger, Republican Court of Appeals Judge Jefferson Griffin. That would give Democrats a stronger shot at winning back the court majority in 2028.
Judicial ethics means these candidates can't tell you how they’d rule on important issues, but interviews give you a sense for their philosophy and personal backgrounds.
The candidates
Riggs was appointed to her Supreme Court seat last year by Gov. Roy Cooper following a brief stint on the state Court of Appeals. Before that, she spent 14 years as a voting rights and civil rights attorney with the Social Coalition for Social Justice, a group involved with lawsuits over redistricting, criminal justice and more. Riggs also has a background in science.
Griffin has served on the N.C. Court of Appeals since he was elected in 2020 and before that, he was a district court judge and a prosecutor in Wake County. He's also a captain and JAG officer in the North Carolina Army National Guard and has served in the Middle East.
The big issue
While neither candidate is saying how they’d rule on abortion cases, it’s still come up in the campaign. Riggs notes that she "values reproductive freedoms," and that she's "the only woman of childbearing age currently serving on any of our appellate courts."
Riggs is criticizing Griffin for a 2023 Court of Appeals ruling in a parental rights case that included the statement "the life of a human being begins at the moment of conception in the mother's womb," suggesting that view could lead to a ban on in vitro fertilization.
Griffin says he signed on to that ruling — written by a different judge — before then voting to withdraw it. "That's not the law in North Carolina," he said.
In their own words
Justice Allison Riggs: "I recognize the constitutional duty to fund public schools, and how important my role is in upholding our constitution. I have a record of fighting for democracy and understanding the constitutional protections for our right to vote, and it's something where my opponent doesn't have that experience."
Court of Appeals Judge Jefferson Griffin: "I don't swear an oath to a party or any person, it's to the constitution. And so I think you have that from my side, and on the other side in this race, you have somebody who was politically appointed and led some of the most partisan lawsuits in the state."
You can listen to my full interviews with Riggs and Griffin on this week’s episode of the WUNC Politics Podcast.
