(The Center Square) – Democrat Ed Eldred says his judicial experience is much-needed on the North Carolina Court of Appeals as he rallies with others in his party hoping to unseat Republican incumbent Valerie Zachary.
Both candidates are running for Seat 14 on the court, a position that Zachary has held since 2015.
Election Day is 47 days away. The race is one of three statewide for the 15-member Court of Appeals.
The court, in three-judge panels, issue rulings on proceedings for errors of law or legal procedure, not the facts of the case. Each judge holds their position for eight years and, after the election became partisan again in 2018, Republicans now have an 11-4 majority.
On Sept. 11, Eldred attended a North Carolina Democratic Party virtual event called Taking Back the Courts 101. He was joined by incumbent state Supreme Court Judge Allison Riggs and the two other Democratic Court of Appeals candidates.
They all spoke on the importance of Democrats joining together to regain the majority on the courts in North Carolina.
“Rightly or wrongly, for better or worse, we are running in partisan races. What that means is everybody has to pick a team,” Eldred said.
Eldred said he is excited about the Democratic team, but blasted Republican judicial candidates for the people they are running with. He is endorsed by Planned Parenthood Votes! South Atlantic, Equality North Carolina PAC, an LGBTQ advocacy group, and several other abortion-rights groups.
He joined other Democrats in their calls against Republican “extremism.”
“Either way, I don’t think that person should be judging me or you, my wife or my daughter, or anybody,” Eldred said of Republican judicial candidates. “That’s the big-picture extremism overview.”
Zachary, like many other Republican judicial candidates, said the Constitution will guide her.
“For the past seven years, it has been my privilege to serve the people of North Carolina, and I want to continue that service,” she said. “My record is one of consistently applying the Constitution to the facts of a case and not one of judicial activism from the bench.”
With over 30 years of legal experience, Zachary’s motto is “putting the law first.”
Eldred’s is “standing tall for justice.”
“If you have met me in person, you understand why my campaign slogan is standing tall for justice,” he said at the virtual meeting. “I’m pleased to be with these great people here. We’re all going to stand tall for you.”
He adds that his legal experience will provide a unique perspective on the court.
“I am an appellate attorney,” Eldred said. “I’ve represented about 300 people in our state courts, most of them in the area of indigent defense, which is an overwhelming majority of what the Court of Appeals does. That’s a perspective that the court doesn’t really have right now and really has never had. I think I’m going to bring a level of practical experience to help the other judges understand what actually goes on in those cases.”
Eldred is fighting an uphill battle against the incumbent Zachary. Yet, financially, the candidates are fairly evenly matched according to campaign finance documents.
Both ended the second financial quarter on June 30 with just over $50,000 in the bank. While Zachary had slightly more than her opponent, Eldred had already spent nearly four times as much as her at $23,000.
