Voter Information

2020 Appellate Judicial Candidates

Frequently Asked Questions

Who are you?
Why are you providing this information?
Which appellate seats are on the ballot this year in North Carolina?
Who gets to vote for these candidates?
What do appellate judges do?
Is there anything different about the elections this year than in previous years?
How do I find my sample ballot?

Who are you?
The appellate lawyers at the law firm Fox Rothschild LLP run this blog, ncapb.foxrothschild.com. We handle a lot of cases in the Supreme Court of North Carolina and the North Carolina Court of Appeals, and blog about interesting decisions and developments in those courts and others.

Why are you providing this information?
We are providing this voter information as a service to the public. We do not endorse candidates.

We have noticed two things over the years:

There is great demand for unbiased information about appellate judicial races; and
That information is difficult to find.

Which appellate seats are on the ballot this year in North Carolina?
There are eight: three Supreme Court seats and five Court of Appeals seats. For some of the races, a challenger is running against an incumbent judge. In others, there is no incumbent, either because the incumbent is not seeking another term or because the incumbent is running for a different seat. All of the races are for eight-year terms, which will run from January 1, 2021 through January 1, 2029. The winner of an election generally gets to keep his or her seat for the entirety of that term, unless and until he or she hits the mandatory retirement age of 72 years old.

Who gets to vote for these candidates?
Every voter in the State can vote on open appellate judgeships. In other words, all appellate judicial seats are statewide races.

What do appellate judges do?
In almost every case—whether criminal or civil—someone wins and someone loses. Maybe a jury finds a company liable for negligence and awards damages to an injured plaintiff. Or maybe a judge decides that a plaintiff has no case, and throws it out before it even gets to a jury. Or maybe a person is convicted of a felony.

The loser can usually appeal. Most of those appeals go to the North Carolina Court of Appeals. That court has 15 judges. An appeal typically goes to a “panel” consisting of 3 of those 15—”randomly” chosen by a computer. Those judges are supposed to review what the trial judge and jury did, and make sure they followed the law.

Those three judges usually have the last word in a case. So, their job is enormously important.

Sometimes, though, a case is really close, and the 3 judges don’t all agree. Or, maybe they all agree, but the case presents an exceptionally important legal issue. In those cases, the Supreme Court of North Carolina might get involved.

The Supreme Court has 7 judges who are usually called “Justices.” If that court decides to consider a case, all 7 justices do so together. Whoever gets 4 votes, wins. That court has the last word, except in very rare cases where there is some federal issue involved and the United States Supreme Court decides to give the case one last look.

Is there anything different about the elections this year than in previous years?
There are changes every cycle, it seems.

In the 2018 election cycle, a law was passed that eliminated the judicial primaries for that cycle only. For 2020, the law allows for party primaries, but only one candidate from each party has filed for each seat. So the primary elections for the eight appellate judgeships are uncontested this spring.

Also in the 2018 election cycle, a law passed the summer before the general election—and a lawsuit challenging that law—led to some uncertainty about whether appellate judicial candidates would have their party affiliation listed next to their names on the ballot. In this cycle, though, most of the special laws governing judicial races have been repealed. So, in the general election, you can expect to see a party affiliation on the ballot—a “D” for Democrats and an “R” for Republicans. There are no third-party candidates this cycle.

How do I find my sample ballot?
Sample ballots for the general election have not been prepared yet.

2020 Appellate Judicial Candidates

Supreme Court of North Carolina Chief Justice Seat 1:

Cheri Beasley (D)
Paul Newby (R)

Supreme Court of North Carolina Associate Justice Seat 2:

Lucy Inman (D)
Phil Berger, Jr. (R)

Supreme Court of North Carolina Associate Justice Seat 4:

Mark Davis (D)
Tamara Barringer (R)

North Carolina Court of Appeals Seat 4:

Tricia Shields (D)
April C. Wood (R)

North Carolina Court of Appeals Seat 5:

Lora Christine Cubbage (D)
Fred Gore (R)

North Carolina Court of Appeals Seat 6: