Q&A: Lora Christine Cubbage discusses career experience, run for N.C. Supreme Court

The Daily Tar Heel's Sarah Clements spoke with N.C. Supreme Court candidate Lora Christine Cubbage about her experience and aspirations for the court. Her opponent in the Democratic primary is Allison Riggs.

This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.

The Daily Tar Heel: Where are you from?

Lora Christine Cubbage: I am from Greensboro, which is where I am based out of. I’ve been around lots of the counties in North Carolina over the last eight years of serving as a judge. I went to undergrad at N.C. A&T and I went to law school at UNC.

DTH: Tell me a little bit about your background — how is it relevant to a position on the N.C. Supreme Court?

LCC: My experience as an assistant district attorney, as an assistant attorney general, as district court judge and as superior court judge yielded to me the opportunity to litigate and preside over every single case that the supreme court is going to review. I'm the only candidate that has judicial experience in the trial courts. I'm the only candidate that's ever presided over a case. I'm the only candidate that's ever presided over a trial.

DTH: Why are you running for election?

LCC: Because we need a trial court judge on the supreme court — that's one. So based on my experience and expertise, I'm running because it is imperative, critical and it's a disservice to the voters and to the residents of North Carolina that we are making decisions on our supreme court that affect the lives of our people, and we don't have anyone up there with trial court experience. 

I'm also running because when you talk about the judicial, we cannot help but to talk about the demographics of North Carolina versus the demographics of our courts.

Our courts, especially our appellate courts, and especially the supreme court for which I'm running — where the decision is the last decision made — should reflect people of all demographics, and so I’m the only candidate that can bring racial equity to the courts, and I'm not asking people to vote for me for that, I'm asking people to vote for me because of my qualification, with the bonus that I can bring the racial equity to the courts.

DTH: Why are you passionate about justice?

LCC: Because I am a person of color. And it is my community in which I have seen firsthand, I have read about and I have learned things about the political context — all of the injustices that my community has suffered. When I was cutting hair for 17 years, that's why I decided to step out on faith as a single mother and try to get a college education and then go to law school. Because my clients were suffering injustice. 

DTH: Why are you the best candidate for this race?

LCC: My primary opponent is known for the work she done at the Southern Coalition for Social Justice, for voting. But our state supreme court only does redistricting cases once every four, five, 10 years. In 2023, our state supreme court made decisions on 895 cases — only one of them was redistricting. I am well-versed in redistricting. I presided over redistricting cases as a superior court judge. I am also well-versed in all the other areas of law in which my opponent is not.

@sarahhclements

@DTHCityState | city@dailytarheel.com