North Carolina Justice Allison Riggs sworn in after 6-month election battle with GOP challenger

Luciana Perez Uribe Guinassi and Kyle Ingram, The Charlotte Observer on May 13, 2025

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RALEIGH, N.C. — North Carolina Supreme Court Justice Allison Riggs was sworn in for an eight-year term Tuesday morning at the state Capitol, days after her Republican challenger conceded the race — capping a months-long legal battle.

Justice Anita Earls, the only other Democrat on a court controlled by Republicans, administered the oath of office to Riggs in the old House chamber, where more than 100 people gathered to watch.

The ceremony began shortly after 10 a.m., with Earls offering opening remarks from a podium at the center of the room. “This journey to this point was not a normal one,” she said. But Riggs and supporters “had the courage to come forward and be public and speak.”

“We are at a moment in our democracy where it takes everyone standing up... and standing strong,” she said.

Minutes later, Riggs took the oath, ending with loud applause and standing ovations from the crowd.

Riggs said a formal investiture would be next month, providing “ample time for further celebration,” and for recognition of “the many people who got me here, even if it takes 734 minutes,” she said, alluding to the 734-vote difference in her race.

“In the last six months of this fight, many of you thanked me for my commitment and energy in this fight. It was never an option for me to give anything less,” she said.

Riggs called on voters to remember that they “decide elections, not candidates, not political parties.”

She wrapped up her remarks just before 10:30 a.m., with people in attendance crowding around her to offer congratulations and hugs.

A State Board of Elections spokesperson shared with The News & Observer a certificate of election issued Tuesday in the Supreme Court race.

Challenge to 65,000 votes

Riggs, appointed to the court in September 2023 by then-Gov. Roy Cooper, a Democrat, ran for reelection last November, facing Jefferson Griffin, a Republican N.C. Court of Appeals judge. Griffin will remain on the appeals court through 2029.

Griffin and the state’s Republican Party refused to concede, initially challenging ballots from more than 65,000 voters who lacked either a driver’s license or Social Security number in the state’s voter database.

The State Board of Elections countered that the missing data was likely due to routine clerical issues, not voter misconduct. They also pointed out that all voters were required to show ID in the 2024 election, minimizing the risk of fraud. Later, the board said more than half of those voters had provided the required ID, but it hadn’t appeared in an initial database pull.

The challenge triggered six months of legal battles, court rulings, and appeals.

On Wednesday, Griffin conceded after U.S. District Judge Richard E. Myers II, a Donald Trump appointee, ruled against Griffin’s efforts. Myers wrote that Griffin sought to “change the rules of the game after it had been played,” The News & Observer previously reported.

Though the ruling affirmed Riggs’ win, the judge said the state could determine that these issues warrant changes for future elections. This raised the likelihood of future changes in state election laws and procedures — particularly voter ID rules for military and overseas voters and measures to prevent adult children of state residents living abroad who never resided in the state, from voting in state elections. A spokesperson for the state’s board of elections previously shared with the N&O details on what some of those changes will look like.

Other changes could follow. Following a separate legal dispute over State Board of Elections appointments, Republicans gained a 3–2 board majority. This followed the GOP passing a law shifting appointment power from the governor to the state auditor, and Republican Auditor Dave Boliek appointing new members after the N.C. Court of Appeals allowed the law to go into effect for now. On Wednesday, the GOP-led board appointed a new elections board director.