One of the seven seats on the North Carolina Supreme Court was up for election on Tuesday, and it appears a recount could occur in the coming days.

The Democratic incumbent, Judge Allison Riggs, faced her Republican challenger Jefferson Griffin, a judge on the North Carolina Court of Appeals.

With all precincts reporting early Wednesday morning, Griffin had a razor-thin lead over Riggs. Meanwhile, Republicans appeared to be on track to victory in three other statewide judicial races for seats on the appeals court. With nearly 5.7 million ballots counted, Griffin was in the lead with 9,851 votes – just within range of a recount.

For appeals court seats, Republican Tom Murry led incumbent Democratic Judge Carolyn Thompson with 2% of the vote. Republican incumbent Valerie Zachary led Democrat Ed Eldred by 4 percentage points. And in a race between two freshmen, Republican Chris Freeman led Democrat Martin Moore by four points.

In North Carolina, the trailing candidate can request a recount if the unofficial result is less than 0.5 percentage points or less than 10,000 total votes apart.

In 2020, another Supreme Court recount occurred when Republican Paul Newby ousted incumbent Chief Justice Cheri Beasley by just 401 votes.

Riggs served briefly on the Court of Appeals before ascending to the Supreme Court last year; In both cases, she was appointed by Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper to fill vacancies. She previously led the Southern Coalition for Social Justice, a Durham-based group that advocates for lawsuits over gerrymandering and other voting rights issues. In this role, she argued two cases before the U.S. Supreme Court in her 30s.

In addition to his work on the appeals court, Griffin also serves as the lead defense attorney for the North Carolina Army National Guard. Earlier in his career, Griffin worked as a private civil and criminal defense attorney in Kinston before moving to Wake County and becoming a prosecutor and then a district judge.

In recent years, state courts have heard major cases affecting election laws, redistricting, public school funding, Confederate monuments, racial bias in criminal cases and the balance of power in state government.

Republicans won every statewide judicial election in 2020 and again in 2022, solidified their hold on the appeals court and flipped the Supreme Court—turning a 6-1 Democratic majority into today’s 5-2 Republican majority.

The Supreme Court hears everything from criminal appeals to contract disputes, family law cases, allegations of government constitutional violations, and high-profile political cases.

• Redistricting and other voting rights issues are a key issue that the Court frequently considers, and in which decisions are often based entirely on partisan politics.
• On criminal justice issues: Riggs spent her entire career before becoming a judge as a civil rights attorney. Griffin is a former prosecutor who wrote an appeals court opinion in 2021 stating that there is no racial bias in the criminal justice system.
• On abortion: Riggs focused her campaign on the fact that she is the only appellate judge in North Carolina who is a woman of childbearing age, and she promised to defend women’s reproductive rights if reelected. Griffin signed a ruling last year that said life begins at conception; This ruling was later withdrawn after it attracted public attention.

A Griffin victory this year would increase the GOP majority to 6-1. A Riggs victory would maintain the court’s current balance of power. It would also improve Democrats’ chances of regaining control of the court in time for the next round of redistricting after the 2030 census.

Three Republican-held seats are up for election in 2028. So if Democrats can successfully defend at least one of the two seats they currently hold – Riggs this year or Anita Earls, who is up for re-election in 2026 – then they will be able to take back control of the court if they can win the three seats that will be up for grabs in 2028.

Control of the Supreme Court is hugely important to redistricting cases in North Carolina – and therefore plays a key role in which party controls both the U.S. House of Representatives and the state legislature. Because of this, tens of millions of dollars have flowed in from national groups in recent years to influence North Carolina’s judicial elections.

Other legal races

Three seats on the state Court of Appeals were also on the ballot this year, and all appeared poised for victories by Republican candidates. That outcome wouldn’t do much to change the balance of power on the 15-member appeals court. Two of the three seats are currently held by Republicans.

Thompson vs. Murry: One race is to fill the seat vacated by Riggs when she joined the Supreme Court. Republican Tom Murry, a former prosecutor and state senator from Morrisville who is also a JAG attorney for the Army National Guard, is running against Democratic incumbent Carolyn Thompson. Thompson is a former Franklin, Granville, Vance and Warren District Court judge. Thompson also ran for the court in 2022 and lost that race, but Cooper appointed her to the bench in 2023 to temporarily fill Riggs’ former seat until this year’s election.

Zachary vs. Eldred: Another appeals court race pits Democrat Ed Eldred against Republican incumbent Valerie Zachary. Eldred is an Orange County appellate attorney with extensive experience litigating appeals. Zachary worked in private practice in Yadkin County with her husband, Lee Zachary, a former state representative, for nearly three decades before being appointed to a vacancy on the court in 2015 by then-Gov. Pat McCrory. She then won the seat in the 2016 election.

Freeman vs. Moore: The third race for the appeals court is between two newcomers, Republican Chris Freeman and Democrat Martin Moore. Freeman, a former prosecutor and current judge in Rockingham County, is also a JAG attorney in the Air Force Reserves. Moore, a former public defender who now works as an appellate attorney in Asheville, also serves on the Buncombe County Board of Commissioners. Freeman unseated incumbent Judge Hunter Murphy in the GOP primary in March. Incumbent judges almost never lose primaries, but Murphy was publicly reprimanded by the state Supreme Court in 2020 amid allegations that he allowed a toxic work environment filled with sexual comments against his female law clerks, most of which were uttered by a childhood friend, as a top Employees hired.

WRAL will have complete results as votes are counted in over 400 national, state and local races.