Democrats will retain control of the N.C. Supreme Court, but Republicans made inroads, winning at least two seats and possibly three.
Too close to call is the fight for chief justice, in which current Associate Justice Paul Newby, a Republican, leads current Chief Justice Cheri Beasley, a Democrat.
With several thousand provisions ballots and some 96,000 late absentee-by-ballots potentially remaining to be counted and likely to skew Democrat, the race remains too close to call.
The final count will wrap up after canvassing on Friday, Nov. 13, but as counties continued counting late-arriving absentee ballots, Newby’s lead had dropped to only 2,340 votes by 5 p.m. on Monday, Nov. 9.
Republicans Tamara Barringer and Phil Berger Jr. also won competitive Supreme Court races, both by more comfortable margins.
If Newby prevails, Democrats will have a 4-3 advantage. If Beasley survives, their edge would be 5-2.
Republicans also swept races for the North Carolina Court of Appeals, though by only by only a few percentage points in each race.
Democrats previously had a 8-7 advantage of the Court of Appeals, but Republicans Fred Gore, April Wood, Jefferson Griffin and Jeff Carpenter defeated Democrats Lora Christine Cubbage, Tricia Shields, Chris Brook and Reuben Young. Republican incumbent Chris Dillon kept his seat against challenger Gray Styers.
The NC GOP created a judicial victory fund to support Republican judicial candidates and the effort worked, said state Party Chairman Michael Whatley at a press conference. “We could not be happier with the judicial races.”
Kate Martin, Jordan Wilkie, Victoria Loe Hicks, Laura Lee and Frank Taylor contributed to this report.