LITTLE ROCK, Ark. —Abortion and reproductive rights have been central to presidential and gubernatorial races in North Carolina, a battleground state that has more moderate abortion restrictions than elsewhere in the South.
That’s been even more true in the fight for a seat on the state Supreme Court, which abortion rights supporters say will play an important role in determining whether Republicans can pass even more restrictions. Registered Republicans currently hold five of the seven seats and could further increase that majority in Tuesday’s election.
Judge Allison Riggs, a Democrat running for re-election, is focusing heavily on the issue and touting her support for reproductive rights. Its first television ad featured images of Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson, the Republican candidate for governor, who favors restricting abortions before the current 12 weeks. She says her Republican rival for the court could be a deciding vote on the bench for such restrictions.
“This is an issue that is before the state supreme courts, and it’s an issue that is now very important to voters,” Riggs said in an interview.
His Republican opponent, Appeals Court Judge Jefferson Griffin, said Riggs said too much on an issue that could come before the court.
“I think it’s an inappropriate manner, a blatant violation of our judicial standards, our code of conduct,” he said.
The North Carolina race underscores how abortion is fueling costly campaigns at several state supreme courts this year. Groups on the right and left are spending massively to reshape courts that could play a decisive role in legal fights over abortion, reproductive rights, voting rights, redistricting and other hot-button issues in the years to come .
Experts say the campaigns show how the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2022 ruling striking down constitutional protections against abortion that have been in place for a half-century has transformed state high court races.
“What Dobbs did made it clear to political actors and the public that these state courts, which had not received much attention, would actually be very important and would decide some of the most important cases that people might know about “We expected to go to the U.S. Supreme Court,” said Douglas Keith, senior counsel in the Brennan Center’s justice program, which has tracked spending on state court races.
Thirty-three states are holding elections this year for 82 Supreme Court seats. The 2024 election cycle follows record spending on judicial elections in Wisconsin and Pennsylvania last year.
Left-wing groups have significantly increased their spending in state courts this year. The American Civil Liberties Union spent $5.4 million on judicial races in Montana, Michigan, North Carolina and Ohio. Planned Parenthood and the National Democratic Redistricting Committee announced earlier this year that they were collectively spending $5 million, focusing on judicial races in Arizona, Michigan, Montana, North Carolina, Ohio and in Texas.
“We have never invested this much in state supreme courts before,” said Katie Rodihan, a spokeswoman for Planned Parenthood Votes. “This is truly a revolutionary move for us, and I hope it will be the standard for us in the future.”
Targets include Ohio, where Republicans hold a 4-3 majority on the ground. Democrats are defending two seats in the field, while a third is vacant, and Democratic victories in all three races are considered a setback in the Republican-leaning state.
The court’s oversight could be key if the state appeals a judge’s ruling that struck down the state’s most far-reaching abortion restrictions. The ruling says the law banning most abortions once cardiac activity is detected — as early as six weeks into a pregnancy and before many women know they are pregnant — violates a constitutional amendment approved by voters last year and which protects reproductive rights.
Two seats are at stake on the Michigan court, where Democratic-backed justices hold a 4-3 majority. Judicial races are technically nonpartisan, but nominees are nominated at party conventions. Republicans would need to win both seats to flip the court in their favor.
Judge Kyra Harris Bolden is defending the seat to which she was appointed two years ago by Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. Bolden was the first black woman to sit on Michigan’s bench. She will face Judge Patrick O’Grady, of a Republican-backed circuit court, for the remaining four years of her eight-year term.
Republican state Rep. Andrew Fink is competing against Democratic-appointed University of Michigan law professor Kimberly Anne Thomas for the other vacant seat vacated by a Republican-backed judge .
Michigan voters have already enshrined abortion rights in the state constitution, although groups supporting Bolden and Thomas see the races as crucial to defending those rights, with one group’s ad warning that “the Michigan State Supreme Court Can Still Take Away Abortion Rights.”
The most heated races involve two seats on the Montana Supreme Court, which has been criticized by Republican lawmakers for rulings against laws that would have restricted access to abortion or made voting more difficult.
Former U.S. Magistrate Judge Jerry Lynch is running against County Attorney Cory Swanson for chief judge, while state Judge Katherine Bidegaray is running against state Judge Dan Wilson for another seat free in court.
Progressive groups support Lynch and Bidegaray. Both said in an ACLU questionnaire that they agreed with the reasoning and conclusion of a 1999 state Supreme Court ruling that the constitutional right to privacy includes the right to obtain an abortion before viability.
Right-wing groups described them as being too liberal and echoing the rhetoric of national Republicans, with text messages touching on the debate over transgender athletes on women’s sports teams.
The Republican State Leadership Committee, a longtime player in state court races, said its judicial fairness initiative plans to spend seven figures in Arizona, Michigan, Montana, Carolina of the North, in Ohio and Texas.
The group’s ads focus on issues other than abortion. In one touting the three Republican nominees for the Ohio court, the group shows images of President Donald Trump as well as images related to immigration.
A super PAC backed by conservative donor and shipping executive Richard Uihlein also gave to groups involved in state Supreme Court races in Montana and Ohio.
Progressive groups are even focusing their attention on long-held states, like Texas, where Republicans hold all the seats on the Supreme Court. They are trying to unseat three Republican judges who took part in unanimous decisions rejecting challenges to the state’s abortion ban.
One group, Find Out PAC, ran digital ads in San Antonio, Dallas and Houston criticizing judges Jimmy Blacklock, John Devine and Jane Bland. In its advertising, the group accuses the three of “playing doctor from the bench”.
In North Carolina, Riggs’ campaign for abortion rights has drawn complaints from Republicans who say she steps outside the bounds of judicial ethics. But Riggs said she wasn’t saying how she would govern anyway and was simply sharing her values with voters.
“I will continue to speak about my values because, ultimately, our democracy works best when people vote informedly,” she said.
Associated Press writers Isabella Volmert in Lansing, Michigan, Julie Carr Smyth in Columbus, Ohio, and Amy Beth Hanson in Helena, Montana, contributed to this report.
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