The North Carolina chapter of the conservative grassroots advocacy group, Americans for Prosperity (AFP), announced Friday their endorsement of Jefferson Griffin in 2024’s lone race for NC Supreme Court.
🚨 We’re proud to endorse Judge Jefferson Griffin for NC Supreme Court! His commitment to upholding the Constitution and safeguarding individual liberties makes him the right choice for North Carolina. @JGriffinNC #ncpol pic.twitter.com/jHoSwy69DJ
— AFP-NC (@AFPNC) October 18, 2024
Currently serving on the NC Court of Appeals since his election in 2020, Griffin, a Republican, previously served as a district court judge in Wake County, following work as a prosecutor in the Wake County District Attorney’s office. He’s a veteran, serving as a Captain and JAG Officer in the North Carolina Army National Guard.
Griffin is facing incumbent Associate Justice Allison Riggs, a Democrat, who is facing her first election. Riggs was appointed by Gov. Roy Cooper to the NC Court of Appeals in January 2023 to fill the vacancy left by Judge Richard Dietz, R, after his election to the Supreme Court; Cooper then appointed Riggs to the NC Supreme Court in Sept. 2023 to fulfill the remaining term of the retiring Justice Michael Morgan, D.
Prior to her appointments, Riggs worked as an activist attorney, serving in multiple roles at the Southern Coalition for Social Justice, including Co-Executive Director and Chief Counsel for Voting Rights.
Griffin, a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2003, earned his United States Coast Guard Captain’s license and worked as a charter fisherman on the North Carolina coast, before attending law school at NC Central University.
AFP North Carolina says it is focused on endorsing candidates that promote free market economic policies, including judges who will honor the Rule of Law and constitutional principles upon which those policies rest.
“We’re really excited to endorse a really strong, constitutional conservative,” Tyler Voigt, state director for AFP-NC told Carolina Journal. “We think [Jefferson Griffin] is very well suited to sit on the Supreme Court.”
While AFP is more regularly focused on promoting good economic policy through the legislature and endorsement of supportive legislative and Council of State candidates, Voigt said having solid jurists is vital to protecting good policy from judicial interference from activist judges.
“We see what happens in other states — you can look at Wisconsin — what happens when a state passes a lot of good policy and it gets thrown out by activist judges on the Supreme Court,” said Voigt. “So, we want to see the General Assembly continue the good work they’ve been doing, and have the understanding that passing good economic policy like they’re doing, isn’t in danger of being thrown out by judges that are trying to legislate from the bench.”
Jefferson and Riggs recently debated on judicial philosophy at a candidate forum.
Republicans have swept races for the NC Supreme Court in recent cycles (2020, 2022), as well as the NC Court of Appeals. The last Democrat to win election the NC Supreme Court was Justice Anita Earls, a former colleague of Riggs at the Southern Coalition of Social Justice, when she bested two Republicans in a three-way race in 2018 to give Democrats a brief majority on the high court.
Currently at a 5-2 disadvantage, Democrats and their allies are focused on protecting Rigg’s seat with hopes to then flip the court back into Democratic control in subsequent elections.
Elections to the NC Supreme Court are eight year terms.