Paul Newby wins NC chief justice race as incumbent Cheri Beasley concedes

A hand-recount of votes in North Carolina’s election was not enough for state Supreme Court Chief Justice Cheri Beasley to overcome her colleague’s lead in the race to retain her seat.

Beasley, a Democrat, conceded the race to her Republican challenger, Justice Paul Newby, on Saturday.

“Today, I called Justice Newby to congratulate him on winning the election for Chief Justice of the North Carolina Supreme Court,” Beasley said, in a statement shared on Twitter. “I offer my very best to him and his family as he moves into that new role.”

In her statement, she thanked the Board of Elections for working “tirelessly” to reaffirm the integrity of the democratic process.

After two eight-year terms, Newby is the longest-serving current member of the N.C. Supreme Court.

“As a lifelong North Carolinian and the son of a public-school teacher and a printer, I had no idea I would ever have the privilege of serving in this role,” Newby said in a statement posted on Twitter. “I am truly grateful to the people for entrusting me with this responsibility.”

With his win, Republicans have swept all of North Carolina’s statewide judicial races in the 2020 elections. Victories by Republicans Newby, Phil Berger Jr. and Tamara Barringer leave Democrats with a narrow 4-3 majority on the seven-member North Carolina Supreme Court.

“These strategic victories are not an accident but the result of our hard-working volunteers, staff, and candidates across North Carolina, who worked tirelessly to elect conservative judges,” state Republican Party Chairman Michael Whatley said in a statement sent by email.

Newby thanked Beasley for her contributions to the justice system and said he would now begin “the task of transitioning leadership of our Judicial Branch, which faces many challenges as the pandemic continues to affect the administration of justice. Our court system must continue to fulfill its constitutional responsibility of providing equal justice to all.”

Beasley made history in 2019 by becoming North Carolina’s first African American female chief justice. She said that distinction led to her receiving letters and congratulatory messages from around the world.

“I have tried my best as your Chief Justice to honor the opportunity set before me,” Beasley said in her statement. “I have tried not just to speak the truth, but to live it. To not simply be an expert in the law, but an advocate for equity, to apply the tools of justice to the cause of equality. My hope is that those values will continue to define North Carolina’s highest court as it meets the challenges of the future,” she wrote.

Request for recount

Beasley had asked for a hand-to-eye recount after a machine recount dropped Newby’s lead over hers from 406 votes down to 401.

But with the hand count almost finished, Newby has added 39 votes to his total, while Beasley added 27. Only one county, Carteret, had yet to finish recounting as of Saturday.

The battle between Newby and Beasley for the position as the state’s top judicial leader had drawn unusual public attention for a court position.

Newby came out ahead on election night but Beasley took the lead as counties continued through Nov. 12 to process absentee by-mail ballots that had been postmarked by Election Day.

Then the lead flipped back and forth between the two. At one point only five votes separated the justices.

But Newby led the race the majority of the time and came out ahead when all the votes were counted.

Beasley asked for a machine recount of all of the nearly 5.4 million ballots cast and then the hand-to-eye recount.

A hand recount in North Carolina requires that 3% of precincts in every county be recounted by hand. North Carolina has 100 counties, which were randomly assigned in a drawing what precincts they would recount.

Both Newby and Beasley had also filed more than 100 protests across the state. In most counties, they alleged that county boards either counted votes that were not legal or failed to count votes that met the criteria in the state’s election laws.

The N.C. State Board of Elections had yet to hear appeals on those protests, but the majority of them were dismissed on the local level. As of early Friday afternoon, 62 appeals of those dismissals had been filed with the state.

This story was originally published December 12, 2020 at 10:43 AM with the headline "Paul Newby wins NC chief justice race as incumbent Cheri Beasley concedes."