You may or may not have other races on your ballot today depending on your precinct…..but everyone in the state has the NC Supreme Court primary race on their ballot today. Control of the Supreme Court — the only potential check in state government on the McCrory/Berger Extremist shit show — is at stake
In this nominally non-partisan race there are four names on the ballot — the Republican incumbent, two Democrats and an independent. The top two finishers today — regardless of party — move on to face each other in November. We must make sure one of those two slots go to a Democrat.
I’m voting for Mike Morgan and I urge you to also. You can find the IndyWeekly endorsement here — these are the stakes:
The stakes for the N.C. Supreme Court race cannot be exaggerated. If it were up to the state's ruling party—and it almost was—we wouldn't even be having an election for that seat. Instead, there would be a "retention election," something lawmakers ginned up to protect Republican Justice Robert Edmunds and their 4–3 majority on the court. If voters gave him a thumbs-down, our Republican governor would've appointed a successor.
Edmunds, given the legal option between a retention election and a regular one, opted for retention.
But then a Superior Court panel threw out that retention law. The case went to the state Supreme Court, where, minus a recused Edmunds, the six justices split, and the lower court's decision stuck. So here we are.
And that should tell you all you need to know about Edmunds's principles. But there's a bigger reason he needs to go. Twice, he's sided with the court's conservative majority to allow the continued use of the racially gerrymandered legislative districts.
With Edmunds on the court, the GOP maintains its unshakeable grip on power in this state—even if, in a fairer form of democracy, it wouldn't.