Associate Justice Anita Earls said she would never forget the attempts to overturn the results of the 2024 Supreme Court race. (Photo: Brandon Kingdollar/NC Newsline)
With a four month financing head start, North Carolina Supreme Court Justice Anita Earls has raised four times as much as Republican challenger state Rep. Sarah Stevens ahead of the 2026 race, new campaign finance reports show.
Earls, a Democrat and the court’s senior associate justice, reported raising more than $580,000 for the first six months of the year, and entered July with nearly $482,000 in cash on hand. Her campaign spent $117,237 during the first half of the year.
Stevens, a state House member from Surry County and former House speaker pro tempore, reported raising about $141,000 since announcing her run in May. Her campaign spent nearly $14,500 and ended the reporting period with about $156,000 in cash on hand.
Earls’ average donation was under $300, with contributions coming from more than 1,900 individual donors. Over 80% of her fundraising came from within North Carolina, and she drew strong support from attorneys, professors, and social workers. Attorneys alone contributed more than $54,000.
The North Carolina Democratic Party also contributed nearly $129,000. Earls received more than $80,000 from out-of-state donors, with notable contributions from Massachusetts, California and New York.
“Our team is proud of the record-breaking work we are doing on this campaign,” campaign manager Mary Alice Blackstock said in a July statement. “Justice Earls is running this race in every corner of the state, and our fundraising is further proof of that. North Carolinians know how important this election is and what’s at stake.”
Stevens reported fewer overall contributions but a much higher average, about $1,500 per donor. She contributed $7,624 to her own campaign and received the maximum $6,800 from former state Rep. Harold Brubaker, who served as a House speaker in the ’90s and now runs a lobbying firm. She also received donations from GOP lawmakers’ political committees including “Citizens for Destin Hall” and “Committee to Elect Brenden Jones.” Hall is the current House speaker and Jones is the House majority leader.
Professionally, Stevens’ donor base included attorneys, business executives, retirees, and individuals, listed their job titles as “president” and “business manager.” She raised $13,000 from out-of-state donors, mainly in Virginia and California.
The 2026 election will decide one of seven seats on the state’s highest court, which currently has a 5–2 conservative majority. Earls, first elected in 2018 after a long career in civil rights law, is the court’s most senior Democrat and a frequent dissenter in rulings involving redistricting, voting rights, and public education.
Rep. Sarah Stevens. (Photo: NCGA)Democrats kept the Supreme Court seat held by Justice Allison Riggs after former Court of Appeals Judge Jefferson Griffin conceded his 2024 race earlier this year. The concession followed a monthslong legal challenge in which Griffin had questioned the eligibility of about 60,000 absentee ballots, primarily from military and overseas voters. State and federal courts rejected his claims, and a federal judge ordered the election certified.
The victory was a key step in the Democratic strategy to reclaim a majority on the court before the next round of legislative and congressional redistricting in 2030. Given the high likelihood of legal challenges to that process, it’s widely assumed that the composition of the court will be extremely important.
The 2026 general election is Tuesday, Nov. 3, 2026.
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