A Republican candidate in the 2024 race for North Carolina’s next attorney general has changed course and has decided to run for a different office.
Tom Murry announced over the weekend that he has decided to run for a seat on the North Carolina Court of Appeals, leaving current Republican Congressman Dan Bishop (NC-08) to run unopposed in the Republican primary in March 2024.
“After several conversations with my family as well as my many supporters statewide, we have decided that I can do more for North Carolina in a different capacity. I have prayed about this decision with my family, and I have listened,” Murry said in a post on X (formerly Twitter) and YouTube.
The former representative and state prosecutor first announced his candidacy for AG in February.
Murry, who was a speaker at the NC Faith & Freedom Salt & Light Conference this past weekend, introduced and pledged his support for Bishop at the conference.
On his various social media accounts, Murry said that judges need to follow the Constitution’s original meaning and follow the law as jurists, not as activists.
“We need proven conservatives to serve as judges to uphold the rule of law,” he said on X. “As a State Prosecutor, Army JAG officer, and former legislator, I have a track record of fighting important fights and achieving results.”
Murry serves as a Judge Advocate (JAG) in the North Carolina Army National Guard. He deployed to the Middle East in 2017-18. Additionally, from 2019 to 2020, he served as a full-time legal assistance attorney, helping soldiers, their family members, and military retirees with their legal needs.
He also served as an at-large member of the Morrisville Town Council for five years from 2005 to 2010, until being appointed to serve in the N.C. House. He previously won a primary for the state House in 2010. Murry went on to win two competitive general elections before losing another competitive election to now-state Sen. Gale Adcock in 2014.
During his time in the legislature, Murry advocated for voter ID and was a primary sponsor of a regulatory reform bill that eliminated over 1400 regulations.
Murry is also an adjunct teacher at the Regent University School of Law and previously served as an executive leader in the N.C. Judicial Branch.