GOP Supreme Court primary: April Wood versus Trey Allen | Eastern North Carolina Now

The Supreme Court race for the seat now held by Sam Ervin IV will be key to getting solid GOP control of that court.  The court is now dominated by liberal Democrats who make up law as they go along in order to further their ideological agenda.  Republicans have two serious candidates on the ballot, and a third ringer inserted at the last minute by someone, possible the Democrats.  The serious candidates are Court of Appeals Judge April Wood and Supreme Court general counsel Trey Allen.

Both Wood and Allen are personally conservatives, and Allen has a close relationship to Chief Justice Newby due to having once been his law clerk.  The key is which one will run better against Ervin in November.

Wood is the only one of the two with judicial experience, having served as a trial court judge as well as on the Court of Appeals, which will help her credibility as a candidate against Ervin.  Also, in North Carolina judicial races, women have historically been stronger candidates for the GOP than men.

It is also important to look at who will be running their campaigns, and on that score, Wood has a decisive advantage.  Allen's consultant is RINO Paul Shumaker, who has  two serious GOP Supreme Court loses on his resume, races we should not have lost.  Shumaker is also the consultant to just about every liberal Republican running for US Senate who  has come down the pike including Richard Burr, Thom Tillis, and Pat McCrory.  Paul Shumaker was also paid by Soros-linked leftwing dark money funds to head up lobbying efforts in the NC General Assembly for the climate alarmists.

April Wood, on the other hand is using the somewhat more grassroots friendly Doug Raymond as her consultant.  Raymond is also a more effective consultant than Shumaker, having worked with Walter Jones when he was attacked by the DC establishment, and then guided the less conservative Greg Murphy to victory against substantial opponents who were to the right of Murphy.  Raymond and Murphy have since parted company.  In state legislative primaries, Raymond has worked for the more conservative candidate.

One concern that has been expressed on Newby's involvement in this race is the way he has treated Wood.  In 2020, Wood was planning to challenge the more liberal former State Senator Tamara Barringer in the GOP Supreme Court primary.  Newby went to her and asked her to "wait until next time" and she did.  Now it is "next time" and Newby is running his former law clerk against her.

Personally, I started out supporting Allen in this race, largely due to respect for Newby, but having looked more closely, Wood is very clearly the better choice.