2024 North Carolina judicial elections

One justice of the seven-member North Carolina Supreme Court and three judges of the fifteen-member North Carolina Court of Appeals were elected by North Carolina voters on November 5, 2024, concurrently with other state elections. Terms for seats on each court are eight years. These elections were conducted on a partisan basis.

Primary elections (for seats with more than one candidate from a political party) were held on March 5, 2024.

Supreme Court Seat 6

This seat was held by Associate Justice Allison Riggs, a Democrat. Governor Roy Cooper appointed her to the seat following the early retirement of Michael R. Morgan, also a Democrat. Morgan had announced in 2023 that he would not run for reelection in 2024. Riggs ran for a full term, as did Judge Lora Cubbage, a fellow Democrat.

On January 5, 2023, NC Court of Appeals judge Jefferson Griffin announced that he would run for the seat as a Republican.

Democratic primary

Candidates

• Lora Cubbage, North Carolina Superior Court judge and former District Court judge
• Allison Riggs, incumbent and former Court of Appeals judge

Polling

Results

Republican primary

Candidates

• Jefferson Griffin, Court of Appeals judge

General election

Debate

Endorsements

Polling

Results

Aftermath

Following the initial election recount, Jefferson Griffin challenged the eligibility of over 60,000 ballots. In December 2024, the North Carolina State Board of Elections dismissed the challenge. Following a lawsuit, in January 2025, the North Carolina Supreme Court dismissed the challenge, requiring the petition to go through lower courts first. In February, justice William Pittman of Wake County dismissed the challenge.

On April 4, 2025, the North Carolina Court of Appeals overturned the ruling in a 2 to 1 vote, where they ruled that the ballots were wrongly included in the final result tally. The decision would require all voters included on the list of challenged ballots to cure their ballots by the set deadline of fifteen days. The NC Supreme Court temporarily blocked the order to either reverify or throw out the ballots on April 6, 2025.

On April 12, the NC Supreme Court ruled that most of the challenged ballots should be counted with no required verification process. An estimated two to seven thousand ballots would be declared as fraudulent, unless verified individually. The affected ballots were primarily overseas and military voters. Riggs announced that she would be taking the case to federal court.

Court of Appeals Seat 12 (Thompson seat)

The incumbent was Carolyn Thompson, a Democrat. Governor Roy Cooper appointed her to fill the vacancy caused when he elevated Judge Allison Riggs (also a Democrat) to the Supreme Court. Thompson ran for a full term, but was defeated by former state representative Tom Murry.

Democratic primary

Candidates

• Carolyn Thompson, incumbent and 2022 candidate

Republican primary

Candidates

• Tom Murry, former state representative

General election

Debates

Polling

Endorsements

Results

Court of Appeals Seat 14 (Zachary seat)

The incumbent was Judge Valerie Zachary, a Republican.

Democratic primary

Candidates

• Ed Eldred, attorney

Republican primary

Candidates

• Valerie Zachary, incumbent

General election

Polling

Endorsements

Results

Court of Appeals Seat 15 (Murphy seat)

The incumbent was Republican Hunter Murphy, who lost to Chris Freeman in the primary. Freeman then went on to win the general election, defeating Democrat Martin Moore.

Democratic primary

Candidates

• Martin E. Moore, attorney and Buncome County commissioner

Republican primary

Candidates

• Chris Freeman, District Court judge
• Hunter Murphy, incumbent

Results

General election

Polling

Endorsements

Results

See also

• 2024 North Carolina elections

Notes

References

External links