2026 General Election: November 3, 2026. New info launches early October.
Anita Earls
Party:
Democrat
Incumbent:
Yes
Age:
66
Previous experience in elected office:
N.C. Supreme Court Justice (2019-present)
Occupation:
N.C. Supreme Court Justice
Description:
Earls states on her website that her concerns are upholding the rights to healthcare, basic education and a clean environment. She says she has "stood alongside people whose right to vote was denied" and has conducted extensive research on census and redistricting issues. She is known for her view on civil rights and expanding voting, while conservative critics have said she has brought an activist perspective to the bench. She dissented in the recent court ruling on the longstanding Leandro case. (The Leandro case advocated for greater public school funding from the legislature but the Supreme Court ruled the judiciary could not force the state legislature to do so. On that matter, Earls wrote, "The current Court appears unable or unwilling to meaningfully check constitutional rights violations.") In 2023, an N.C. judicial panel investigated a complaint that Earls made comments about bias in the courts that alleged to violate judicial conduct rules; the complaint was ultimately dismissed. She is endorsed by the North Carolina Association of Educators, the North Carolina AFL-CIO and former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder.
Other personal:
Earls was born in Seattle and grew up “in a mixed-race family at a time when interracial marriages were illegal in most of the country.“ She is married and lives in Durham. She has two sons and three grandchildren. Earls was a civil rights lawyer at the law firm of James Ferguson and with Julius Chambers, well-known Charlotte civil rights attorneys. She was also a lawyer for the Department of Justice in the Clinton administration. She has taught at Duke University and at the law schools of UNC Chapel Hill and the University of Maryland and is the founder of the nonprofit The Southern Coalition for Social Justice. She announced in January she was diagnosed with breast cancer. She has a bachelor's from Williams College and a JD from Yale.