A high-stakes battle for power over the state appellate courts is now teed up following the results of Tuesday night’s primaries.
Wake District Court Judge Christina Walczyk easily defeated James Whalen, an associate at Raleigh law firm Brooks Pierce.
The two vied for the Democratic nomination to run for the open seat on North Carolina Court of Appeals. Incumbent Allegra Collins announced she would not run for re-election and had endorsed Walczyk.
Whalen touted his experience arguing cases on gerrymandering and other major legal issues before state appellate courts and helping represent Supreme Court Justice Allison Riggs in head-twisting litigation with her challenger, Republican Court of Appeals Judge Jefferson Griffin. Griffin engaged in a six-month legal fight to throw out thousands of votes and overturn a close election. A federal judge ultimately ordered the State Board of Elections to certify the 734-vote win for Riggs.
Walczyk pointed to her 19-year career as a district court judge in Wake County and noted her many endorsements from legislators and judges, including former Chief Justice Cheri Beasley. Whalen had the endorsement of five former Supreme Court justices, including former Chief Justices Burley Mitchell and Henry Frye.
Republican Craig Robert Collins is also running for the open seat. He was unopposed in the primary.
Two other incumbent Democrats, John Arrowood and Toby Hampson, are running for re-election to the court. Arrowood was appointed to the seat in 2007 but lost a bid for a full eight-year term the following year. He was reappointed in 2017 after Judge Doug McCullough announced his retirement and won the seat in 2018, becoming the first openly gay person to win a statewide contest in North Carolina. He faced no primary challengers.
Meanwhile, the two Republicans running to oust Arrowood were Superior Court Judge Matt Smith and Administrative Law Judge Michael Byrne. On Tuesday, Byrne appeared to secure the nomination.
Byrne has worked as a lawyer for the Office of Administrative Hearings, where he said he oversaw 272 cases, according to his campaign website, as well as more than 400 cases as an administrative law judge.
Smith is a Union County native who earned his law degree from Campbell University. He practiced law for 18 years as a trial attorney and then successfully ran for a district court seat in 2020. He won a superior court seat in 2022.
Hampson was notably part of a three-judge panel that heard a dispute over the 2024 Supreme Court election between Riggs and Griffin, dissenting from the Republican majority. Before joining the appeals court in 2019, he clerked for three Court of Appeals judges and entered private practice with a Raleigh law firm. He faced no Democratic challengers in the primary.
Republican George Cooper Bell is Hampson’s lone challenger in the general election. He was elected to the Mecklenburg County Superior Court in 2018.
Democrats are hoping to stop their six-year losing streak on the state appellate courts. Republicans now hold a 12-3 majority on the Court of Appeals and a 5-2 majority on the state Supreme Court.
This fall, Democratic incumbent Justice Anita Earls is running against Republican Rep. Sarah Stevens in November (neither faced a primary challenger). If Earls can keep her seat, Democrats believe they have a chance to retake the court in 2028, when three seats are up.