Voters across North Carolina will be faced with an array of judicial candidates on their ballots who are responsible for interpreting and applying laws enacted by lawmakers as well as compliance with the state and U.S. Constitutions.
Political organizers of both parties have been trying to rally voters to turn out for every race on their ballots — including judicial candidates, who are sometimes overlooked. And because they don’t receive as much attention, these races are often close.
Most recently, in 2024, Jefferson Griffin lost to incumbent N.C. Supreme Court judge Allison Riggs by only 734 votes out of approximately 5.5 million ballots cast. Griffin’s refusal to accept the results of the election then sparked a six-month legal battle before he eventually conceded.
Here are the judicial candidates on ballots in Mecklenburg, Gaston, Cabarrus and Catawba counties.
North Carolina Supreme Court
There is one open spot on the state Supreme Court for this election, and the race is between incumbent Justice Anita Earls, a Democrat who has been on the Court since 2018, and Republican challenger Sarah Stevens. Earls is a former civil rights attorney and Stevens is a former legislator who represented the 90th district in the state House. North Carolina Supreme Court justices serve for eight-year terms.
If Earls retains her seat, the N.C. Supreme Court will keep its current lineup of five Republicans and two Democrats; if Stevens wins, the Court will have only one Democratic justice.
At a candidate forum on Oct. 8, Earls, who is the only person of color on the Court, said that if she loses her seat, the otherwise all-white court will no longer “reflect the diversity” of North Carolina. Stevens was not at that forum and has been largely absent from the campaign trail.
In the House, Stevens voted alongside her party in supporting controversial measures — such as legislation that requires law enforcement to cooperate with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and prevented Medicaid expansion. She also voted for the 12-week abortion ban and introduced a bill that would scale back early voting. She has criticized Earls for her actions on the court, calling her an “activist” who does not apply the law with enough rigidity.
Earls says her priority is protecting everyone’s rights under the state Constitution.
“Because the U.S. Supreme Court has stepped away from things, like ending the Voting Rights Act of 1965, it means state courts are increasingly important to protecting all of our rights, and that’s where my focus is,” she said at the forum on Oct. 8.
Earls has criticized the current Supreme Court as being too partisan and has said it no longer protects the rights of North Carolinians. When the court cleared the way for partisan gerrymandering in 2023, she dissented. Earlier this year, the court also dismissed a case of a school seeking equitable funding, and she dissented then, too.
North Carolina Court of Appeals
The North Carolina Court of Appeals is the state’s second-highest court, and it reviews most civil and criminal appeals from superior and district courts (except for death penalty appeals). The judges sit in rotating panels of three to review cases for errors in legal procedure or interpretation of the law.
There are three positions available on the appellate court, which has 12 Republican judges and three Democrats. Those three seats held by Democrats are up for grabs.
As with the state Supreme Court, judges serve for eight-year terms. With rotating panels of three reviewing cases, if the court is skewed more to one side than the other, cases could be heard entirely by judges who share the same partisan lean.
- Incumbent John Arrowood of Seat 1, a Democrat, is being challenged by Republican Michael Byrne, an administrative law judge.
- Incumbent Toby Hampson, who occupies Seat 2 and is a Democrat, is being challenged by Republican George Bell, a Mecklenburg County Superior Court judge. In August 2019, when Bell was already a sitting judge, he was reprimanded by the Grievance Committee of the North Carolina Bar Association for making a false statement to the court in 2017. The state bar found that he had not consulted his client’s probation officer, and falsely said that his client was in good standing and that he had completed all his jail time. As Bell is also licensed to practice in Tennessee, he was later censured by the Tennessee Supreme Court for the same offense, after he failed to provide that court with an argument on why the same discipline should not be imposed there.
- For Seat 3, which was vacated by Democratic judge Allegra Collins, Democrat Christine Walczyk and Republican Craig Collins are facing off. Walczyk is a district court judge for Wake County, and Collins a Gaston County superior court judge.
Superior and district courts
Across Mecklenburg, Gaston, Cabarrus and Catawba counties, none of the candidates for superior and district judge positions have opponents. In left-leaning Mecklenburg County, they’re all Democrats, and in the other, more conservative counties, they’re all Republicans.
Michael Bitzer, director of the Center for North Carolina Politics & Public Service at Catawba College, said the dearth of contested judicial races at the local level is because of multiple factors: hyperpartisanship, the small size of the legal community and the higher level of professional risk for hopefuls challenging an incumbent judge.
“There has to be a kind of an alignment of all the planets to really make an effective opportunity, particularly in challenging an incumbent,” he told The Election Hub.
In more politically purple areas, there are more opportunities for judicial competition. But many counties across North Carolina are solidly dominated by one political party. On top of that, the legal community — and thus the pool of eligible candidates — is already small, and many attorneys consider challenging an incumbent judge they regularly try cases in front of to be an unwise, risky career move.
Superior court candidates only appear on the ballot in the jurisdictions they represent, and judges serve eight-year terms. District court candidates will all appear on the county ballot, and judges serve four-year terms.
In Mecklenburg County, the three superior court openings are for:
- Seat 1 in Judicial District 26C, which represents northernmost Mecklenburg County. George Guise is running for the spot vacated by George Bell.
- Seat 1 in Judicial District 26F, which represents the central part of the county. Karen Eady-Williams, the incumbent, is seeking another term.
- Seat 1 in Judicial District 26H, which represents the eastern part of the county. Elizabeth Trosch is running for the seat vacated by her brother-in-law, Louis Trosch, Jr., another Democrat.
There are 10 district court candidates.
In Gaston County, there is one superior court judge up for reelection, incumbent David A. Philips, who is running unopposed to represent District 38. Philips is a Republican, but used to be a Democrat. And there are two judges from the all-Republican district court up for reelection: Cameron “Chip” Harrison and William “Gus” Anthony. Both are unopposed.
In Cabarrus County, there are four district court judges up for reelection, all are Republicans running uncontested for another term.
And in Catawba County, all judicial candidates — two District 19 superior court candidates and eight district court candidates — are also Republicans running uncontested.
The election is Nov. 3. Early voting is until Saturday.
Rachel Black is a reporter and writer for The Election Hub. Reach her at rachel@theelectionhub.org.