Choose Jefferson Griffin, the Republican candidate for the N.C. Supreme Courtroom listens to testimony in Wake County Superior Courtroom on Friday, Feb. 7, 2025, in Raleigh, North Carolina. Griffin trails North Carolina Supreme Courtroom Justice Allison Riggs by 734 votes following two recounts of the November 2024 election outcomes.
Robert Willett | Raleigh Information & Observer | Tribune Information Service | Getty Photos
The Republican candidate for North Carolina’s state Supreme Courtroom conceded on Wednesday, ending his six-month lengthy campaign to overturn the election ends in the perennial battleground state.
“Whereas I don’t absolutely agree with the District Courtroom’s evaluation, I respect the court docket’s holding—simply as I’ve revered each judicial tribunal that has heard this case,” Choose Jefferson Griffin mentioned in an announcement.
“I cannot enchantment the court docket’s determination,” he added.
His concession to Democratic Justice Allison Riggs got here two days after a decide appointed by Republican President Donald Trump rejected Griffin’s authorized challenges to the election.
The ruling by Richard E. Myers II, chief decide for the Japanese District of North Carolina, was a serious win for Democrats in the important thing swing state. Riggs will serve an eight-year time period on the GOP-majority court docket.
It additionally boosts Democrats’ possibilities of successful again nearly all of the seven-justice court docket in 2028.
In his 68-page order, Myers wrote that “retroactive modifications to election procedures increase critical due course of issues, notably the place these modifications end in invalidating the votes of people who solid ballots in reliance on beforehand established guidelines.”
The order was a agency rejection of Griffin’s post-election authorized challenges. Critics of Griffin’s arguments had warned that if he received, it might open the door to different candidates who lose races to problem the outcomes.
“You identify the foundations earlier than the sport. You do not change them after the sport is completed,” Myers wrote in his order.
The Democratic Nationwide Committee hailed Riggs’ win as “a righteous victory for democracy and a transparent defeat of political gamesmanship.”
“For 200 days, Republicans in North Carolina sought to overturn the desire of the folks, hijack a state Supreme Courtroom seat, and systematically undermine fundamental religion in our elections,” DNC chair Ken Martin mentioned in an announcement.
“Might this saga be a lesson to Republicans in all places: In case you attempt to undermine the desire of the voters, you’ll lose,” Martin added.
Riggs narrowly received the statewide contest in November’s election, a victory that was later affirmed by two recounts.
The months of authorized challenges make the North Carolina Supreme Courtroom race the final uncalled contest of the 2024 election cycle. It additionally pressured Riggs’ marketing campaign to spend 1000’s of {dollars} to struggle the lawsuits.
Riggs’ marketing campaign and a devoted authorized fund spent almost $100,000 on legal professionals to assist her struggle the extended court docket battle, based on impartial North Carolina journalist Bryan Anderson, citing marketing campaign finance knowledge.