SOUTHERN PINES — Rep. Jamie Boles said Thursday that he intends to run for reelection — whenever filing reopens.
The N.C. Supreme Court on Wednesday afternoon halted filing for all elections across the state, including for local offices, due to challenges regarding district maps that were redrawn earlier this year.
The new maps create District 52 for the N.C. House of Representatives, pairing Richmond County with southeastern Moore County, double-bunking Boles, R-Moore, with Rep. Ben Moss, R-Richmond.
Richmond is currently in District 66, which also includes Montgomery County and a sliver of northeastern Stanly County.
Boles’ current District 52 comprises about two-thirds of Moore County.
“Let me reassure you that I intend to file for re-election in District 52 in the North Carolina House of Representatives when the courts announce the new filing period,” Boles said in a press release. “I look forward to representing the people of Moore and Richmond Counties in NC House District 52!”
Moss filed on Tuesday.
So far, no Democrats have filed for that seat.
Just before filing opened at noon Monday, a 3-judge panel of the N.C. Court of Appeals kept candidates for N.C. Senate as well as both the N.C. and U.S. Houses of Representatives from filing due to legal challenges of the new election maps. But that decision was overturned later in the day.
Gov. Roy Cooper on Wednesday applauded the state Supreme Court’s decision, saying the order “restores faith in the rule of law and it is necessary for the court to rule on the constitutionality of these unfair districts before the next election.”
Senate Republicans, however, have criticized the injunction, highlighting several issues in a press release on Thursday:
“The court provided no legal or factual reason for suspending elections and blocking candidate filing. An appellate court entering an injunction without providing any legal or factual basis is unprecedented. An appellate court changing state law to move an election to their own desired date, again without any legal or factual basis, is even more extraordinary.
The court’s decision was anonymous. Every election in the state has been suspended, and nobody knows by whom.
The Supreme Court ordered a lower court lawsuit to proceed in an impossible timeframe. The Supreme Court is requiring a lower court to conclude a lawsuit on the state’s district maps in four weeks. A similar lawsuit in 2019 took 10 months, including discovery and pre-trial litigation.
The Supreme Court changed state law to proactively cut out the Republican-majority Court of Appeals. Before any trial has even been held, the Supreme Court forbade anybody from filing an appeal with the Republican-majority Court of Appeals.
The Supreme Court changed state law to require appeals of the lower court’s ruling in 48 hours. State law mandates a 30-day appeal period. The Supreme Court changed this state law without providing a legal or factual basis as to why.”
Richmond County is also in a new Senate District.
While the current District 25, represented by Sen. Tom McInnis, comprises all of Richmond, Anson, Moore and Scotland counties, the new District 29 takes away Moore and Scotland counties and adds Montgomery, the western half of Randolph and southeastern Union.
Sen. Dave Craven, R-Randolph, filed to retain his seat on Tuesday, according to the Randolph County Board of Elections.
Craven was appointed in the summer of 2020 to fill out the remainder of the term vacated by the resignation of Sen. Jerry Tillman, and was elected to the seat last November.
McInnis — who switched his residency to Moore County to run for the new Senate District 21, which comprises Moore and most of Cumberland County — also filed Tuesday.
According to the N.C. State Board of Elections, 1,400 candidates had filed by Wednesday afternoon.
