Judge Jefferson Griffin, the Republican candidate for the N.C. Supreme Court listens to testimony in Wake County Superior Court on Friday, Feb. 7, 2025, in Raleigh, North Carolina. Griffin trails North Carolina Supreme Court Justice Allison Riggs by 734 votes following two recounts of the November 2024 election results.
Robert Willett | Raleigh News & Observer | Tribune News Service | Getty Images
The Republican candidate for North Carolina’s state Supreme Court conceded on Wednesday, ending his six-month long crusade to overturn the election results in the perennial battleground state.
“While I do not fully agree with the District Court’s analysis, I respect the court’s holding—just as I have respected every judicial tribunal that has heard this case,” Judge Jefferson Griffin said in a statement.
“I will not appeal the court’s decision,” he added.
His concession to Democratic Justice Allison Riggs came two days after a judge appointed by Republican President Donald Trump rejected Griffin’s legal challenges to the election.
The ruling by Richard E. Myers II, chief judge for the Eastern District of North Carolina, was a major win for Democrats in the key swing state. Riggs will serve an eight-year term on the GOP-majority court.
It also boosts Democrats’ chances of winning back the majority of the seven-justice court in 2028.
In his 68-page order, Myers wrote that “retroactive changes to election procedures raise serious due process concerns, particularly where those changes result in invalidating the votes of individuals who cast ballots in reliance on previously established rules.”
The order was a firm rejection of Griffin’s post-election legal challenges. Critics of Griffin’s arguments had warned that if he won, it could open the door to other candidates who lose races to challenge the results.
“You establish the rules before the game. You don’t change them after the game is done,” Myers wrote in his order.
The Democratic National Committee hailed Riggs’ win as “a righteous victory for democracy and a clear defeat of political gamesmanship.”
“For 200 days, Republicans in North Carolina sought to overturn the will of the people, hijack a state Supreme Court seat, and systematically undermine basic faith in our elections,” DNC chair Ken Martin said in a statement.
“May this saga be a lesson to Republicans everywhere: If you try to undermine the will of the voters, you will lose,” Martin added.
Riggs narrowly won the statewide contest in November’s election, a victory that was later affirmed by two recounts.
The months of legal challenges make the North Carolina Supreme Court race the last uncalled contest of the 2024 election cycle. It also forced Riggs’ campaign to spend thousands of dollars to fight the lawsuits.
Riggs’ campaign and a dedicated legal fund spent nearly $100,000 on lawyers to help her fight the prolonged court battle, according to independent North Carolina journalist Bryan Anderson, citing campaign finance data.