RALEIGH, N.C. (Legal Newsline) - If the Republicans take one of two seats on the state Supreme Court in the November elections, the make-up of the court will shift from 4-3 Democratic to 4-3 Republican.
If Republican Trey Allen, an across-the-board conservative, wins the seat, the court will tilt further away from judicial activism, and will adhere, in Allen’s own words to “text and the original understanding of the Constitution.”
“I will interpret laws according to their text and the intent of the legislature,” Allen, 47, said in a statement about his candidacy. “I will always remember that judges are the servants, not the masters, of the law. I will never base decisions on my political views or personal preferences.”
Trey Allen
| treyallennc.com
Now general counsel at the state Administrative Office of the Courts, Allen is running against April Wood and Victoria Price in the May 17 primary to take on Democrat Sam Ervin in the fall. Ervin has been on the court just since 2015, but like all Democrats faces a monster red wave driven by persistent high inflation, and his party’s embrace on the national level of the policies of its far-left wing.
Allen gives voters a clear-cut alternative. On April 12, The North Carolina Values Coalition, the leading pro-family group in the state, endorsed him.
“Trey Allen is a proven originalist when it comes to the Constitution, and he has earned our endorsement because of his experience and judicial philosophy of consistently interpreting the law according to its objective original meaning,” NC Values Coalition executive director Tami Fitzgerald said in a statement. “We are confident Trey Allen will not be an activist judge or legislate from the bench, and we know his credentials and years of experience as an attorney will bring gravitas to the North Carolina Supreme Court.”
He's also been endorsed by leading North Carolina conservatives: Congressman Dan Bishop, Congresswoman Virginia Foxx, Congressman Patrick McHenry. And he’s won the endorsement of the Citizen Advocates for Accountable Government, the North Carolina Troopers Association, and other groups.
Allen, the results of a December poll show, would defeat Ervin by a shocking 51 percent to 39 percent.
The Carolina Journal reported that the poll results reflect an “historically bad political environment for Democrats.”
Allen graduated summa cum laude, UNC Pembroke and received his J.D. from UNC Chapel Hill in 2000. He was a Judge Advocate, US Marine Corps (served in Iraq) and chaired Chair, NC Bar Association’s Constitutional Rights & Responsibilities Section.
He is married to Teryn Melissa Smith Allen, and they have five children. All are home-schooled.