• Press Release

Four Months After Justice Allison Riggs Won the North Carolina Supreme Court Seat, EMILYs List President Once Again Calls On Judge Griffin To Concede

March 5, 2025

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today marks four months since EMILYs List-endorsed candidate Justice Allison Riggs won her election to the North Carolina Supreme Court. Her victory was reaffirmed by two independent recounts but her opponent, Judge Jefferson Griffin, has refused to concede and has attempted to throw out the legal votes of more than 65,000 North Carolinians. Both the State Board of Elections and the Wake County Superior Court ruled that Griffin’s claims are baseless, but he is continuing a lengthy legal battle to overturn this election. EMILYs List President Jessica Mackler released the following statement: 

“Enough is enough — It’s time for Griffin to give up this game and concede. His attempts to circumvent free and fair elections are not only childish, they’re dangerous. And it’s coming at enormous costs to North Carolina voters. This cannot go on any longer, for the sake of our democracy.”

Justice Allison Riggs currently serves on the North Carolina state Supreme Court. She was appointed by Gov. Roy Cooper in 2023. She attended college, graduate school, and law school at the University of Florida. Following her time in Florida, she spent 14 years as a civil rights and voting rights attorney at the Southern Coalition for Social Justice in Durham, North Carolina. Subsequently she became the co-executive director for programs and chief counsel for voting rights. Riggs has spent her entire career fighting for equal justice under the law for every North Carolinian.​ She has argued before the U.S. Supreme Court twice in landmark redistricting cases. Prior to her appointment to the North Carolina Supreme Court, she was appointed to the Court of Appeals. Riggs is the youngest woman to ever serve on the North Carolina state Supreme Court. EMILYs List was proud to endorse Riggs in her campaign.

EMILYs List, the nation’s largest resource for women in politics, works to elect Democratic pro-choice women up and down the ballot and across the country with a goal of fighting for our rights and our communities. Over nearly 40 years, EMILYs List has raised nearly $950 million to help Democratic women win competitive elections by recruiting and training candidates, supporting and helping build strong campaigns, researching the issues that impact women and families, running one of the most impactful independent expenditure operations for Democrats, and turning out women voters to the polls. Since our founding in 1985, we have helped elect the country’s first woman as vice president, 192 women to the House, 29 to the Senate, 20 governors, and over 1,600 women to state and local office. More than 40% of the candidates EMILYs List has helped elect to Congress have been women of color. Visit www.emilyslist.org for more information.