By Andrew DeMillo, Associated Press
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — Abortion and reproductive rights have been central to the races for president and governor in North Carolina, a battleground state where abortion restrictions are more moderate than elsewhere within the South.
That's much more true within the fight for a seat on the state Supreme Court, which abortion rights advocates say will play a serious role in whether Republicans can enact much more restrictions. Registered Republicans currently hold five of seven seats and will expand that majority even further in Tuesday's election.
Judge Allison Riggs, a Democrat running for re-election, is targeted heavily on the difficulty and touts her support for reproductive rights. Their first television industrial featured images of Lieutenant Governor Mark Robinson, the Republican candidate for governor, who favors restricting abortions sooner than the subsequent 12 weeks. She says her Republican rival for the court might be a decisive vote for such restrictions.
“This is an issue that is going to the state supreme courts, and it is one that is very important to voters right now,” Riggs said in an interview.
Her Republican opponent, Appeals Court Judge Jefferson Griffin, said Riggs said an excessive amount of a couple of matter that would come to court.
“I think this is an inappropriate course of action, a clear violation of our judicial standards, our code of conduct,” he said.
A supporter holds an indication before Democratic presidential candidate Vice President Kamala Harris arrives to talk at a campaign rally on Wednesday, Oct. 30, 2024, in Raleigh, North Carolina (AP Photo/Allison Joyce). The North Carolina race highlights how expensive abortion is for Supreme Court campaigns in several states this 12 months. Groups on the best and left are spending big to reshape courts that would play an important role in legal battles over abortion, reproductive rights, voting rights, redistricting and other hot-button issues in the approaching years.
Experts say the campaigns show how the 2022 U.S. Supreme Court decision striking down half-century-old constitutional abortion protections has modified the race for states' highest courts.
“What Dobbs did made it clear to both political stakeholders and the public that these state courts that haven't received much attention are actually going to be very important and are going to decide some of the biggest cases that people could have.” “I expected to go to the U.S. Supreme Court,” said Douglas Keith, senior counsel within the Brennan Center’s judicial program, which has tracked spending in state judicial elections.
This 12 months, elections for 82 Supreme Court seats can be held in 33 states. The 2024 election cycle follows record-breaking spending on judicial elections in Wisconsin and Pennsylvania last 12 months.
Left-wing groups have significantly increased their spending on state courts this 12 months. The American Civil Liberties Union has spent $5.4 million on lawsuits in Montana, Michigan, North Carolina and Ohio. Planned Parenthood and the National Democratic Redistricting Committee announced earlier this 12 months that they might jointly spend $5 million, specializing in lawsuits in Arizona, Michigan, Montana, North Carolina, Ohio and Texas.
“We have never invested this heavily in state supreme courts before,” said Katie Rodihan, spokeswoman for Planned Parenthood Votes. “This is truly a game-changing step for us and I expect this will be the norm for us going forward.”
Targets include Ohio, where Republicans hold a 4-3 majority. Democrats are defending two seats on the court while a 3rd continues to be open, and Democratic victories in all three races are considered elusive within the Republican-leaning state.
The court's control might be crucial because the state appeals a judge's decision striking down the state's most sweeping abortion restrictions. The ruling says the law, which bans most abortions as soon as cardiac activity is detected – as early because the sixth week of pregnancy and before many ladies know they’re pregnant – violates a constitutional amendment passed by voters last 12 months was adopted and protects reproductive rights.
Two seats are up for election on the Michigan court, where Democratic-backed justices have a 4-3 majority. Court races are technically nonpartisan, but candidates are nominated at party conventions. Republicans would need to win each seats to swing the court of their favor.
Judge Kyra Harris Bolden is defending the seat she was appointed to 2 years ago by Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. Bolden was the primary black woman to take a seat on Michigan's bench. She faces Republican-backed District Judge Patrick O'Grady for the remaining 4 years of her eight-year term.
Republican Rep. Andrew Fink is competing with Democratic nominee University of Michigan law professor Kimberly Anne Thomas for the opposite open seat being vacated by a Republican-backed judge.
Michigan voters have already enshrined abortion rights within the state structure, although groups supporting Bolden and Thomas call the races crucial to defending those rights. One group ad warned that “the Michigan Supreme Court can still overturn abortion rights.”
The most heated races are for 2 seats on the Montana Supreme Court, which has come under fire from Republican lawmakers over rulings against laws that might have restricted access to abortions or made it harder to vote.
Former U.S. Judge Jerry Lynch is running against District Attorney Cory Swanson for chief justice, while state Judge Katherine Bidegaray is running against state Judge Dan Wilson for an additional open spot on the court.
Progressive groups have supported Lynch and Bidegaray. Both said in an ACLU questionnaire that they agreed with the reasoning and finding of a 1999 state Supreme Court ruling that the constitutional right to privacy includes the best to an abortion before viability.
Right-wing groups have portrayed each as too liberal and adopted the rhetoric of national Republicans by fueling debate in text messages about transgender athletes on women's sports teams.
The Republican State Leadership Committee, a longtime player in state court races, said its Judicial Fairness Initiative planned to spend seven figures in Arizona, Michigan, Montana, North Carolina, Ohio and Texas.
The group's ads concentrate on issues apart from abortion. In a case involving three Republicans running for the Ohio court, the group is displaying images of President Donald Trump in addition to immigration-related images.
An excellent PAC backed by conservative donor and shipping executive Richard Uihlein has also donated to groups involved in state Supreme Court races in Montana and Ohio.
Progressive groups are even turning their attention to long-term states like Texas, where Republicans hold every seat on the Supreme Court. They are searching for to unseat three Republican justices who were a part of a unanimous decision that rejected challenges to the state's abortion ban.
One group, Find Out PAC, has taken out digital ads in San Antonio, Dallas and Houston criticizing Judges Jimmy Blacklock, John Devine and Jane Bland. In their grievance, the group accuses the three of “playing doctor from the bench.”
In North Carolina, Riggs' abortion rights campaign has drawn complaints from Republicans that she is overstepping the boundaries of legal ethics. But Riggs said she isn't saying how she would govern in any case and is just sharing her values with voters.
“I will continue to speak about my values because, fundamentally, our democracy works best when people vote informed,” she said.
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