Endorsements: The Editorial Board’s choices for NC Court of Appeals

North Carolina’s lower court races, although partisan, are less tangled in politics than races for seats on the North Carolina Supreme Court. In this election, voters have several strong choices for the North Carolina Court of Appeals. Our recommendations for contested races:

NC Court of Appeals

Seat 8: Republican Julee Tate Flood and Democrat Carolyn Jennings Thompson are running to replace Judge Lucy Inman, who is running for the NC Supreme Court. Flood is currently an attorney for Court of Appeals Judge Jeff Carpenter and has been an instructor at Elon and Duke. Thompson is a former district and superior court judge who started her career with child protective services.

Both candidates are qualified to fill this position, but only Thompson has held elected office as a judge prior to the election. We recommend Carolyn Thompson.

Seat 9: The race for Seat 9 on the Court of Appeals offers a choice between two types of experience. Donna Stroud, the Republican incumbent, manages the court’s operations as chief judge. She was elected to the court after working as a lawyer and serving as a Wake County District Court judge. Stroud has served for 15 years on the Court of Appeals, where she has written over 1,200 opinions and has participated in over 3,600 cases. There’s no doubt about Stroud’s conservative judicial philosophy – her model for a judge is the late U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia – but she is regarded as a fair and impartial judge by Democrats and Republicans alike.

Challenging Stroud is Democrat Brad Salmon, a district court judge for Lee, Harnett and Johnston counties. A native of Harnett County and a graduate of N.C. State and the Campbell School of Law, Salmon served one-term in the state House representing Lee and Harnett Counties from 2015 to 2017. He was appointed by Gov. Roy Cooper to the district court in 2021. Salmon has a good mix of experience as a lawyer, state representative and district court judge, but his record is no match for Stroud’s long and fair-minded service on the Court of Appeals. We recommend Stroud.

Seat 10: Judge John M. Tyson, a Republican, seeks re-election to the Court of Appeals, having already served two non-consecutive terms. His Democratic opponent is Gale Adams, who is currently a Superior Court judge.

Tyson’s website says he “maintains a conservative judicial philosophy.” As an appellate judge, Tyson has authored a number of troubling opinions. He dissented from a 2020 decision allowing LGBTQ people to seek emergency protections from abuse by a same-sex partner. Tyson also dissented from a Court of Appeals decision that allowed the removal of a Confederate monument from downtown Winston-Salem.

Adams is a well-qualified candidate, and she would bring a wide range of experience to the bench. Before her election to the Superior Court in 2012, Adams was an assistant district attorney as well as a federal public defender. She thinks diversity on the court is important, and understands the value of an independent judiciary. We recommend Adams.

Seat 11: Republican Michael Stading, a District Court judge in Mecklenburg, faces Democrat Darren Jackson, a longtime legislator who was appointed to the Court of Appeals by Gov. Roy Cooper in 2020. Jackson, from eastern Wake County, practiced law before serving in the NC House for 12 years. That experience can be an asset on the bench, but Stading brings a greater breadth of legal experience as a judge, prosecutor and JAG officer in the U.S. Air Force. Attorneys who appear before him laud his fairness, compassion and deep grasp of the law. We recommend Stading.

This story was originally published October 26, 2022 at 6:00 AM with the headline "Endorsements: The Editorial Board’s choices for NC Court of Appeals."