Morning Digest: GOP justices signal readiness to overturn election won by Democrat

A new North Carolina ruling is "pure Stop the Steal insanity"

North Carolina Supreme Court Justice Allison Riggs (D) (credit: Allison Riggs Facebook)

Leading Off

NC Supreme Court

At least three Republicans on the North Carolina Supreme Court signaled that they're prepared to overturn Democrat Allison Riggs' victory in a new ruling issued Wednesday evening, though the outcome of pending litigation remains uncertain—and a federal court could still intervene.

Nominally, the decision is a minor setback for Republican Jefferson Griffin, who is seeking to throw out more than 66,000 valid votes cast in November's election for the state's top court, which three different counts have confirmed was won by Riggs.

Griffin had filed two suits seeking to reverse Riggs' win: one before the state Supreme Court and one with the Wake County Superior Court soon after. The Supreme Court concluded on Wednesday that only the latter venue was proper under state law, saying Griffin's challenge should proceed in Wake County.

But concurring opinions joined by a trio of Republican justices set off major alarm bells among legal analysts about the Supreme Court's ultimate intentions.

As The Downballot's Quinn Yeargain notes, an opinion from Chief Justice Paul Newby that Justices Phil Berger and Tamara Barringer both signed onto "embraces the baseless claim that there is something nefarious about how the post-Election Day count proceeded, even though it did so in full accordance with state law"—echoing sentiments regularly expressed by election denialists.

"On the night of the election, petitioner led his opponent by almost 10,000 votes," Newby wrote. "Over the course of the next several days, his lead slowly dwindled, and he now trails his opponent by 734 votes out of the 5,540,090 total votes cast. That is a highly unusual course of events. It is understandable that petitioner and many North Carolina voters are questioning how this could happen."

It happened, of course, because no state counts all valid votes on a single night. And as election law expert Justin Levitt has pointed out, the very idea of holding a "lead" in an election prior to the conclusion of the vote-tallying process is itself faulty.

"If the first peanut M&M out of the bag is yellow," Levitt posted just before the election, "that does not mean the yellow M&Ms are 'winning' or 'in the lead,' or that the others in the bag are 'trailing.'" In short, an incomplete count with no legal significance temporarily put Griffin ahead—a situation no different than what we see every election night, when the first precincts reporting can paint a wildly different picture compared to the final result.

Or as Slate's Mark Joseph Stern put it, "Their opinions are pure Stop the Steal insanity."

Republicans hold a 5-2 majority on the North Carolina Supreme Court, though Riggs has recused herself from any proceedings involving her election (which is the last uncertified race anywhere in the country).

One Republican, Richard Dietz, has repeatedly expressed discomfort with Griffin's claims, noting in a new concurring opinion that Griffin wants to discard certain votes even though election officials "complied with the election rules existing at the time of the election." Anita Earls, the court's other Democrat, has also rejected Griffin's arguments in dissenting opinions.

The fifth Republican, Trey Allen, has yet to directly address the substance of Griffin's challenges, though he wrote Wednesday's order directing the case first be heard in the lower courts. In a new partial dissent, Earls pointed to language Allen used referencing "potentially illegal votes" that she "perceive[s] to be a signal in this Order as to the Court’s preferred outcome"—namely, taking Griffin's side.

If Allen sides with Earls and Dietz, the court could deadlock 3-3, in which case last month's decision by the state Board of Elections to reject Griffin's challenges would stand. But should Allen throw in with Newby's camp, the court could retroactively toss out more than 1% of all ballots cast in November to subvert an election on behalf of a fellow Republican against the will of voters.

Whatever the Supreme Court decides, though, the federal judiciary could have the last say. Riggs and the Board of Elections have sought to have Griffin's case heard by a federal court, though a federal judge ruled earlier this month that the state courts should retain jurisdiction. However, Democrats have appealed that decision to the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals, which will hold oral arguments on Monday.

PA's Austin Davis on electing more LG's like him

Governors

CT-Gov

New Britain Mayor Erin Stewart, the only notable Connecticut Republican who's publicly considering a bid for governor next year, now says she'll make an announcement by the end of the month. She telegraphed her intentions, though, by filing paperwork with the state to create an exploratory committee, as WTNH's Jennifer Brink reported on Thursday.

Democrats, meanwhile, are waiting to see whether Gov. Ned Lamont will seek a third term, though he's previously said he plans to wait until the state's legislative session ends in June.

GA-Gov

Former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms said Thursday that she's considering a bid for governor, a position that will be open next year because Republican incumbent Brian Kemp is term-limited. Bottoms, who left office in early 2022 after just one term, is one of several major Democrats who could run, though she did not specify a timetable for deciding.

OH-Gov

Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost launched his long-expected bid for governor on Thursday, but the Republican's announcement came almost a month earlier than planned.

Yost had all but confirmed he'd run in comments last month, and just last week, his team said a formal kickoff would follow in late February. But two major shakeups evidently pushed him to move up his timetable: the appointment of a top rival to the Senate and the emergence of another potentially serious adversary.

For years, Lt. Gov. John Husted had also been putting together a gubernatorial campaign, but Gov. Mike DeWine's decision to name Husted as JD Vance's replacement late last week removed a major obstacle to Yost's plans. At the same time, though, businessman Vivek Ramaswamy reportedly began preparing his own bid for governor after DeWine passed him over for the Senate, with a launch that NBC says is coming "early next week."

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It's far from clear, though, just how imposing a presence Ramaswamy might be. On the one hand, he managed to work his way into Donald Trump's inner circle by sucking up to him when the two were both running for the presidency—perhaps enough to earn a coveted Trump endorsement.

On the other hand, he was just driven out of Trump's panel on government spending—the "temporary organization," in government parlance, known as DOGE—by Elon Musk, little more than two months after it was announced. While Ramaswamy apparently ran afoul of Musk, Trump was also reportedly angry that Ramaswamy had sided with tech bros over MAGA nativists in a public spat last month about visas for foreign workers (though Musk did the same).

Yost may be specifically hoping to box out Ramaswamy, but there are several other Republicans who might also be on his mind.

State Treasurer Robert Sprague filed paperwork last week for a likely campaign, while Secretary of State Frank LaRose expressed interest in running himself last month. Punchbowl now adds that Reps. Mike Carey and Warren Davidson "are said to have aspirations for the governor's mansion." Davidson, though, has considered bids for statewide office twice in the past but has never gone for it.

MI-Gov

EMILYs List, the influential abortion-rights group devoted to electing pro-choice Democratic women, endorsed Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson on Thursday, a day after she launched her bid for Michigan's open governorship. Benson is the first major Democrat to enter the race.

NJ-Gov

A new poll of New Jersey from Emerson College shows that a large number of voters in both parties are undecided about their options in this year's race for governor.

The survey, conducted for PIX11 and The Hill, finds 56% of Democrats saying they haven't made up their mind with four-and-a-half months to go until the June 10 primaries. The only candidate to taste double digits is Rep. Mikie Sherrill, who sits at 10%. The rest of the field is jammed up just behind her.

On the Republican side, former Assemblyman Jack Ciattarelli (the GOP's nominee in 2021) leads conservative radio host Bill Spadea 26-13, with state Sen. Jon Bramnick in third with 4%. Once again, a large plurality—in this case, 47%—are not ready to pick a candidate.

Numbers like these are to be expected, though, given that campaigns have yet to begin spending in earnest to communicate with voters. The only major candidate to hit the airwaves so far is Democrat Steven Fulop, the mayor of Jersey City. So far, though, his efforts don't appear to have had a major impact, since he's at just 4% in Emerson's poll.

TN-Gov

A new internal poll from Tennessee Sen. Marsha Blackburn shows her pasting a potential rival in next year's Republican primary for governor, but the lone congressman it tested was not the guy who just said he thinks aliens occupy hidden bases beneath the Earth's seas. (Just sit tight for more on that.)

The one person Blackburn's pollster did pit her against was Rep. John Rose, who represents the state's 6th District to the east of Nashville. Blackburn, according to Fabrizio, Lee & Associates, would obliterate Rose 71-13 in a hypothetical matchup—numbers so lopsided they're probably aimed at dissuading Rose from mounting a bid altogether.

A Rose campaign should, in theory, have unfolded by now. In late October, Andy Sher of State Affairs reported that Rose was "expected to announce shortly after" securing a fourth term last fall, which he did easily. He has yet to say anything since then, however, about running to succeed term-limited Gov. Bill Lee.

More than half a dozen other Republicans could also enter the fray, though Blackburn's polling memo (which was obtained by Marc Caputo at Axios) didn't mention any of them. One of them, though, made news in a different way this week.

Rep. Tim Burchett, who serves the Knoxville-based 2nd District, put in an appearance on Matt Gaetz's new TV show on Wednesday in an interview that touched on a topic of great importance for Americans concerned about the high cost of groceries: underwater aliens. The exchange was highlighted by Mediaite and must be consumed in full:

Gaetz: It does seem a lot of these UAP sightings are over water. Do you think there’s anything to that and the basing concepts that you were laying out?

Burchett: I do. When I've talked to people—sonar people—and the way they hide it from us, Matt, they say it's because our sonar, I believe—I haven’t been briefed on this, just from what I’m putting together—but we have some secret sonar. But what’s so crazy about it, like we’re hiding it from the Chinese. Well heck, Matt, the Chinese sold us the components for it. They know what’s in our sonar probably better than we do.

But when they tell me something’s moving at hundreds of miles an hour underwater, and our capabilities are—I don’t think we have anything that’ll do 40 miles an hour, and these things—this one was large as a football field underwater, and this was a documented case, and I have an admiral telling me this stuff—and it just to me…

Gaetz: So that’s where you think the bases are? It’s underwater, then, because of those reports?

Burchett: I do. I just think, traveling light years, I think it happens. I think it’s possible in the vastness of God’s great universe. I mean light years, you know, the light from those stars that we see at night left there before the time of Christ. I mean, the vastness of God’s great universe is unreal. I’m not worried about them harming me. I mean, with that capabilities, they would have barbecued us a long time ago, brother.

"UAP," for those not in the know, stands for either "unidentified aerial phenomenon" or—relevant for those who don't want to confine their imaginations merely to the skies—"unidentified anomalous phenomenon."

Burchett, who said in November that he was not ruling out a gubernatorial bid, did not address what his administration's policies toward these subaquatic visitors might be.