NC appeals court judge falls in GOP primary, as Democratic Supreme Court justice fends off challenger

NC Supreme Court Justice Allison Riggs won the Democratic primary for her seat on the high court. A Republican judge on the Court of Appeals, who faced a rare public censured, lost his primary.

Posted 10:00 a.m. Mar 5 — Updated 4:21 a.m. Mar 6

Laura Leslie

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Will Doran, WRAL News

RALEIGH, N.C. — A sitting state Supreme Court justice fended off a primary challenger Tuesday night, but a judge on the Court of Appeals fell in his primary.

Supreme Court Justice Allison Riggs beat challenger Lora Cubbage in the Democratic primary for the only Supreme Court seat up for election this year. Riggs was appointed to the state's highest court by Gov. Roy Cooper in September, filling the seat vacated by Democratic Justice Mike Morgan, who stepped down to run for governor — and came in second in that primary on Tuesday. Cooper had also appointed Riggs to the North Carolina Court of Appeals, to fill a vacancy created when Republican Richard Dietz won a Supreme Court seat in the 2022 election.

Riggs is a noted civil rights attorney and litigator. She led the Durham-based Southern Coalition for Social Justice, taking over for the group's founder Anita Earls when Earls was elected to the state Supreme Court in 2018. But her time on the bench has been brief, and Riggs has not had to run in an election before this year. Riggs and Earls are currently the only Democrats on the state's highest court.

Cubbage, who sought the party's nomination over Riggs, is a superior court judge from Guilford County. After working as an assistant attorney general, Cubbage won a district court seat in 2016 and then a superior court seat in 2018. She was also the Democratic Party's nominee for a Court of Appeals seat in 2020, when she lost with 49% of the vote.

Riggs will face Republican Judge Jefferson Griffin, currently on the state Court of Appeals, in November.

Republicans won every statewide judicial election in 2020, and again in 2022, enabling them to flip control of the Supreme Court from 4-3 in favor of Democrats to 5-2 in favor of Republicans.

Democrats will have to put on a similarly dominant stretch of elections, over the course of years, if they hope to flip the court back. The state GOP is hoping to continue its streak of victories to enable a 6-1 majority. Riggs' seat is the only one up for election this year.

Court of Appeals primary

An incumbent Republican on the state Court of Appeals lost his primary Tuesday.

Hunter Murphy won election to the appeals bench in 2016 and was up for re-election this year. He lost in the GOP primary Tuesday to Chris Freeman, a district judge in Rockingham County with ties to current state Supreme Court Justice Phil Berger, Jr.

Murphy was censured by the state Supreme Court in 2020 after an assistant was found to be harassing female clerks. The high court found Murphy had not stepped in to stop the behavior, writing that he "contributed to and enabled a toxic work environment."

Freeman will face Democratic nominee Martin Moore, an Asheville lawyer who serves on the Buncombe County Board of Commissioners.

The 15-member Court of Appeals has 11 Republicans. Three seats are up for election this year. In addition to the Freeman-Moore race for Murphy's seat, Republican judge Valerie Zachary faces Democratic challenger Ed Eldred, and Democratic judge Carolyn Jennings Thompson faces GOP challenger Tom Murry.

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