A Republican candidate for N.C. Supreme Court, a GOP candidate for N.C. District Court and a GOP candidate seeking re-election to a seat on the Nash County Board of Commissioners were among those who addressed the Nash County Republican Party at its recent convention.
N.C. Court of Appeals Judge Jefferson Griffin, who grew up in Nash County, is challenging N.C. Supreme Court Associate Justice Allison Riggs, a Democrat, in the 2024 general election. Griffin spoke to Republicans gathered last week at Nash Community College’s Brown Auditorium to emphasize the importance of the down-ballot GOP candidates.
Gov. Roy Cooper in September elevated Riggs, a former voting rights attorney and then an N.C. Court of Appeals judge, to fill a vacancy resulting from the resignation of N.C. Supreme Court Associate Justice Mike Morgan, who stepped down to seek the Democratic nomination for governor in the March 5 primary. Morgan lost in the primary to N.C. Attorney General Josh Stein.
Additionally, N.C. District Court Judge Anthony Brown, a Democrat, is not seeking re-election to the District 8 Seat 4 position, which serves a district covering Nash and Edgecombe counties as well as Wilson County. Then-Gov. Bev Perdue appointed Brown to the position in 2009.
In the contest to succeed Brown, Republican Jennifer Bennington of Wilson will face Democratic candidate Matthew Sperati of Rocky Mount in the Nov. 5 election. Both Bennington and Sperati are attorneys. Sperati also serves as chairman of the Rocky Mount Planning Board.
Nash County Commissioner Sue Leggett, a Republican who was appointed to the District 4 seat in 2019 and who was elected to the position the next year, is facing a challenge from former Rocky Mount fire Chief Corey Mercer, a Democrat.
All three contests are on the ballot in the Nov. 5 general election in addition to the presidential contest, the gubernatorial contest and other federal, state and local races.
At last week’s Nash County Republican Party convention, Griffin told the attendees of there being an 11 to five politically conservative majority on the N.C. Court of Appeals, which he said is fantastic compared to the past.
Griffin also told the attendees of there being a five to two politically conservative majority on the N.C. Supreme Court.
“And, with your help, I’m going to win in this next election cycle, and we’re going to take it six to one,” Griffin said.
Griffin said, however, that the kicker is, “If we don’t win this seat, we could lose our majority on the Supreme Court by 2028.”
Three of the positions on the court currently held by Republicans are going to be up for election that year.
“And you know what comes up after 2028?” Griffin said. “Redistricting.”
He said if the Republicans lose the N.C. Supreme Court, then there is going to be a court-drawn map or some outside organization doing the mapping.
He said that having a politically conservative N.C. Supreme Court allowed state legislators to create a map of a competitive first Congressional District that GOP nominee Laurie Buckhout currently can run in.
“How cool is that?” he said. “We haven’t had one of those in a long time, right?”
He also said, “How cool was it to show your ID when you go vote this year? It was pretty awesome, right?”
Griffin was referring to a ruling in April reversing a previous Democratic majority N.C. Supreme Court’s opinion against not requiring a voter to present photographic identification prior to casting a ballot.
Bennington, in addressing the Nash County Republican Party convention, pointed out that, “We have no Republicans sitting on the District Court bench right now.”
Bennington, in speaking about her qualifications, said, “I’m kind of the oddball-out candidate.”
Bennington said that she mostly works on Wilson County Department of Social Services cases, particularly of abused and neglected children, not on criminal cases.
“We represent families to try and reunify them when it’s possible,” Bennington said. “We work with them when it’s possible.”
And Bennington said, “When it’s not possible, we make the very hard decisions that maybe they can’t have their kids for a period of time — or maybe they can’t have their kids at all and somebody else needs to raise them.”
She also emphasized that before she went to law school, she was a social worker and saw first-hand the experiences some of these families are going through.
Leggett, in addressing the Nash County Republican Party convention, said that she considers several items to be priorities and that she is going to continue to work on these issues.
Leggett noted that the county being financially responsible, completing smart capital projects, supporting public safety and emergency medical services and maintaining the rural and urban balance in the county topped her priority list.
Leggett also said that she and fellow commissioners have worked hard to keep the county’s tax rate low and that the board would work with the governments in Bailey, Middlesex and Spring Hope to help resolve water and wastewater issues.
Leggett also said that she is proud to work with Sheriff Keith Stone and to support him and all his law enforcement staff who keep county residents safe.
And she said that, as the wife of a 30-year volunteer firefighter and a mother of two volunteer firefighters, “I will always be an advocate for fire and EMS service here in our county.”
Leggett is also a full-time farmer, and she noted that she would continue to work hard to “strike a balance between open space farmland and the houses that we need to have for people that want to come and enjoy our area.”
District 4 in Nash County covers a significant portion of the southern part of the county but also includes most of the downtown and eastern parts of Nashville, an area east to northeast of Nashville and the Momeyer area.
N.C. Rep. Ken Fontenot, R-24th District, was the county GOP’s convention’s keynote speaker.
He spoke of a united front and of expanding the area’s wealth.
Fontenot represents a portion of Nash County and all of Wilson County and is running for re-election.
He said border security, the economy and freedoms were all at play in the upcoming general election.
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