For 17 years in our GOP-controlled state legislature, Republican Sarah Stevens never missed an opportunity to strip away individual freedoms and destroy our social safety net. Now she’s running for a seat on our state’s highest court, which makes decisions that impact everything from our rights and safety to the environment and economy.
It’s hard to imagine a worse candidate for NC Supreme Court than attempted election thief Jefferson Griffin, but here she is. Let’s unpack why Stevens is a disastrous choice for the NC Supreme Court.
She Loves Child Predator Harvey West
Harvey West was arrested and charged with the statutory rape of three minors while serving as a police officer in the Outer Banks. His youngest victims were 14 years old. Those charges were reduced to multiple counts of indecent liberties with a child as part of a plea deal. West was sentenced to six years in prison.
He was on the state sex offender registry for at least a decade after his prison release. But that didn’t stop him from gaining power in the NC Republican Party. Former NCGOP Chair Michael Whatley (Roy Cooper’s opponent in this fall’s U.S. Senate race) appointed West to the party’s powerful rulemaking committee. And with party support, West was able to establish himself as a fundraiser. Stevens attended West’s Judicial Picnic at his home last year and appeared in event photos. Take a look! Kids ages 12 and younger were encouraged to attend for free. Stevens also appeared on his wife’s podcast, promoting the event.
Sarah Stevens at the 2025 Down East Judicial Picnic hosted by convicted sex offender Harvey West
But Stevens wants you to believe that she doesn’t know Harvey West, despite plenty of evidence to the contrary, including the fact that she is friends with him on her personal Facebook page.
She Violated a State Campaign Finance Law
While running for the court and serving in the General Assembly, she accepted a $6,800 donation from a longtime lobbyist, violating a state law that bars lobbyists from contributing to sitting legislators – regardless of the office they are running for. Stevens told NC Newsline this was “legal.” She added: “He did not give to me as a member. He gave to me as a judicial candidate.”
She Has Fought to Increase Your Power Bill
Because she apparently believes Duke Energy’s billions in profit aren’t enough, Stevens repeatedly voted to allow electricity rate hikes. In 2025, she voted for SB 266, which raises residential utility bills, rolls back clean energy progress, and shifts costs from large corporations to everyday North Carolinians.
She has also taken $30,000 in campaign “donations” from Duke Energy.
She is not alone in this blatant conflict of interest. Chief Justice Paul Newby holds massive investments in Duke Energy but does not recuse himself from NC Supreme Court cases involving the company.
She Has Failed Our Public Schools
North Carolina was the only state that failed to pass a budget last year, thanks to Stevens and her fellow GOP legislators who hold the reins in Raleigh. As a result, our teachers didn’t get raises, and schools were left without critical resources.
Stevens is also a big supporter of private school vouchers, which have funneled taxpayer dollars to the state’s wealthiest families at the expense of public school students. While vouchers are sold as expanding options for families, a whopping 87 percent of new school vouchers in 2024-2025 went to families who have never attended a public school.
She Wants to Deny You Health Care
Stevens has long been an adversary of affordable health care programs, even saying that she wants to eliminate Medicaid. She voted against Medicaid Expansion, blocking half a million working North Carolinians from getting health care.
Believing that life begins at conception, she also voted in favor of SB 20, severely restricting abortion access in North Carolina. Proud of her vote, she led the Republican messaging campaign that celebrated the ban, calling it “reasonable” and “mainstream.” In reality, North Carolina is considered hostile to reproductive rights.
She Has a History of Rigging Our Maps
As a legislator, Stevens has repeatedly fallen in line with her Republican colleagues and voted for gerrymandered maps, meant to disenfranchise Black voters and consolidate power for the GOP.
North Carolinians deserve fair voting maps that allow us to choose our representatives instead of representatives choosing their voters. The first step to getting fair maps is taking back our state courts before new maps are drawn for the next decade. If we can hold our remaining Democratic seats this year (Earls’ seat on the NC Supreme Court plus three seats on the NC Court of Appeals), then in 2028, we can flip our state courts blue before new election maps are drawn for the next decade.
She’s Handed More Power to Corrupt Chief Justice Paul Newby
In 2023, Stevens introduced legislation raising the mandatory retirement age for judges from 72 years old to 76 years old, allowing Supreme Court Chief Justice Paul Newby to remain in power. Then, just before she left the legislature this summer, she sponsored a bill that would allow the Chief Justice to unilaterally stop other judges from being allowed to hear cases and block them from being paid.
As we wrote in 2024, Newby has a history of using his position to target and intimidate any judge he sees as a threat to his right-wing agenda, initiating disciplinary action (later dismissed) against Justice Anita Earls for acknowledging the existence of racial bias and demoting a more moderate Republican from chief of the Court of Appeals after she supported a Democrat for a clerk position. Newby, a “conservative” who has ruled in favor of corporations 89% of the time since his election, is intent on restructuring the system to concentrate power in his own hands – in secret whenever possible – by bulldozing judicial norms, systems, and conventions, and Sarah Stevens seems intent on helping him do it. This ProPublica article further exposes Newby’s abuses of power.
In return, Newby campaigned for Stevens in the primary. Newby’s wife personally gave $3,800 to Stevens’ campaign.
She Won’t Commit to Recusing Herself
It seems like common sense: If you authored a law, you shouldn’t serve as a justice on the highest court in our state as it decides a case that centers on the law you authored. But, as reported by Bryan Anderson, Stevens will not commit to recusing herself from cases involving the legislation she crafted during her 17-year tenure in the NC General Assembly.
That means if she wins her election this fall, she could be the deciding vote on upholding a potentially illegal law that she herself authored.
Earlier this year, Democratic lawmakers in Raleigh introduced judicial ethics legislation to safeguard against conflicts such as this. Stevens refused to even give the bills a hearing in the committee she chaired.
She’s a Quitter
Stevens resigned her legislative seat in mid-June, even though her two-year term was not slated to end until Jan. 1. She openly admitted she needed to focus on her campaign for the NC Supreme Court. Constitutional duty be damned!
Keep in mind, she walked away during a time when the NC General Assembly was in session and getting the bulk of their work done. Her resignation came just before Republicans in the legislature finally passed a state budget, a year after it was due.
On the day Stevens resigned, her sprawling voter suppression bill, HB 958, was heard in committee. One last act of betrayal to everyday North Carolinians before she left Raleigh. A buzzer beater!
As the N&O pointed out, the bill contains “a grab bag of conservative policies, including banning election officials from encouraging voter turnout, banning ranked-choice voting statewide, and empowering the Republican state auditor to investigate election conduct in counties of his choice.” Additionally, the bill would reduce the early voting period for primary elections, loosen campaign finance restrictions, and make it harder to vote from nursing homes and care facilities.
Fortunately, We Don’t Have to Settle For Sarah
The North Carolina Supreme Court has the final say on matters foundational to our rights, safety, environment and elections. We need someone who will protect everyday North Carolinians, not child predators and partisan extremists. Fortunately, the incumbent in this race is Anita Earls - brilliant jurist and steadfast defender of freedoms.
To say that Justice Anita Earls is highly qualified to serve on the NC Supreme Court is an understatement. For her entire career, she has stood alongside people whose right to vote was denied, people who were mistreated at work, and the parents of children who were being denied equal educational opportunities, seeking equal justice under the law in state and federal courtrooms. We encourage you to learn more about her and talk to your friends about this incredible candidate!
As Justice Earls told us in an interview: “Her career has been about taking away the rights that I have been standing up to defend.”