Democrat Allison Riggs and Republican Jefferson Griffin are in a tough race for a seat on the state Supreme Court that may be subject to a recount.

With all precincts reporting early Wednesday, Griffin has a lead of less than 10,000 votes over Riggs.

State election officials still need to count a number of votes, including provisional ballots and various mail-in ballots. The State Board of Elections will certify the final results on November 26th.

Riggs has the right under state law to request a recount if the difference between the candidates is either 0.5 percent of the total votes cast or 10,000 votes, whichever is less.

A Griffin victory would give Republicans a 6-1 majority on the state Supreme Court.

As Riggs put it earlier this year, control of the court is a game of dominoes. If Democrats hope to eventually regain the majority they lost in 2022, they will need to retain Riggs’ seat this year and that of Judge Anita Earls, the only other Democrat, in 2026. There will be three seats up for grabs in 2028.

With Griffin’s apparent victory, the game of political dominoes has become a little more challenging. Earls has already announced she is running for re-election, but no Republican challenger has emerged in that race.

The state’s highest court has become another political battleground over the past decade after Republican lawmakers eliminated public funding in 2013 and turned statewide judicial races into partisan lines in 2018. In 2020, state judicial campaigns broke fundraising records with an estimated $15 million.

The judgments have also become more partisan. Last year, the court’s conservative majority decided three voting rights cases, in two of which overturned rulings that the court had issued when it was still controlled by Democrats. In dissenting opinions, Earls and Riggs have accused their colleagues of putting politics above the law. And sometimes things get personal. Justice Richard Dietz, writing for the majority, called Earl’s dissent in one case “unhinged,” “excessive” and “excessive.”

Anderson Clayton, chairman of the state Democratic Party, said The gathering Earlier this year, Democrats dropped the ball in the statewide judicial election. The state party has attempted to change this by establishing a coordinated campaign fund for judicial races and hiring a director to devote to those races. Clayton said the party has invested in communications, digital advertising and media strategies, as well as local organizing.

Riggs previously worked as a civil rights attorney at Southern Coalition for Social Justice, the Durham-based nonprofit that Earls founded in 2007. Gov. Roy Cooper appointed her to the appeals court in 2022 and then to the state Supreme Court last year after Mike Morgan resigned to run in the gubernatorial primary.

While she didn’t address specific cases in her campaign, Riggs did talk on the stump about issues like reproductive rights and the environment. Last month, Republican Senator Buck Newton filed an ethics complaint against Riggs with the Judicial Standards Commission, accusing her of violating the judicial code of conduct by running ads about reproductive rights. Riggs said in a post on X that she did nothing wrong. Complaints to the Judicial Standards Commission are confidential, as are any possible investigations. A complaint only becomes public if the state Supreme Court issues disciplinary action.

Griffin, a former prosecutor and district court judge who won his appeals court seat in 2020, has not been as outspoken on the issues, instead emphasizing his conservative qualities as an originalist who says he won’t let politics influence how he does he interprets the law. However, Griffin received some backlash when he agreed with a now-withdrawn opinion from Republican appellate colleague Hunter Murphy that said, “Life begins at conception.” Griffin declined to comment on why he agreed with the opinion or why it was withdrawn .

Democrats are also betting on reducing the Republican majority on the Court of Appeals, where conservatives currently have an 11-4 majority. Republicans increased their lead to 13-2, with incumbent Valerie Zachary retaining her seat and Democrat Carolyn Thompson losing her seat to Republican Tom Murry. Republican Chris Freeman won a vacant third seat, defeating Democrat Martin Moore.

Michael Hewlett is a staff reporter at The gathering. He was previously a legal reporter at the Winston Salem Diary. You can reach him at [email protected].