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Endorses Collins

The race

Seat 3 on the North Carolina Court of Appeals — an open seat: incumbent Judge Allegra Collins (D), on the court since 2018, retired and is not seeking reelection (the CSV's note, corroborated by the cycle reporting). An eight-year term, elected statewide on a partisan ballot on November 3, 2026. Roster verified against the CSV's compilation source: Christine Walczyk (D), a Wake County District Court judge, against Craig Collins (R), a North Carolina Superior Court judge. The shared surname with the retiring judge is a ballot coincidence in every source retrieved; no relationship is documented, and voters should not assume one.

Christine Walczyk — Challenger. One of the most senior judges in Wake County: District Court Judge for District 10C, Seat 2, for 19 years (her own questionnaire says "more than 16 years" in an earlier cycle; the 2026 guides put her tenure at 19). Before the bench she owned her own Raleigh firm for 11 years — Grafstein & Walczyk, PLLC — representing small businesses, indigent adults charged with crimes, and juveniles in delinquency court. Credits, from her own candidate questionnaire and campaign: Lead Family Court Judge in Wake County from 2013 to 2021, where she partnered to bring remote hearings during the pandemic, an overflow courtroom for backlog, instructional videos and form packages for self-represented litigants, a law-student externship program, and a free mediation program; now Lead Judge in general civil court, managing Wake County's mandatory arbitration program and presiding over small-claims appeals, evictions, contract disputes, and tort actions. Endorsements: Planned Parenthood Votes! South Atlantic, the North Carolina Association of Educators, Equality NC, the People's Alliance, and former North Carolina Supreme Court Justices Cheri Beasley and Robin Hudson. Her stated philosophy is the doctrinal center of this race: she "has emphasized the need for flexibility when applying older laws to present, real-world situations" (the Buncombe Echo's neutral ballot-guide summary), and conservative critics (NC Political Tea, a partisan source, labeled) quote her campaign videos arguing rights and constitutional meaning must adapt. Priced at the proven standard: the flexibility philosophy is documented in a neutral source and in her own recorded statements; the partisan gloss on it is not ours. Dirt beyond philosophy: an old Change.org "impeach" petition by a dissatisfied litigant exists online; its allegations are UNPROVEN, were never adjudicated in any source retrieved, and are not priced here.

Craig Collins — Challenger. Gaston County's judge: appointed a District Court judge in Judicial District 27A by Gov. Pat McCrory in February 2016 to fill the vacancy left by Chief District Court Judge Ralph Gingles Jr.'s death, then elected to the Superior Court in 2016 and reelected multiple times since — a decade on the bench across both trial levels. Before judging: nine years in the Gaston County District Attorney's office as an assistant district attorney, chief district court prosecutor, and lead drug prosecutor, including work as local supervising attorney for a federal grant program helping prosecutors combat domestic violence; then his own firm from 2007 to 2016, having "prosecuted and defended thousands of cases… ranging from minor traffic violations to first-degree murder," and represented parents in abuse-and-neglect court. Villanova Law, 1997. His stated philosophy: he has promised to "not allow political agendas to influence the law that's already established" — follow the Constitution, don't legislate from the bench — and his campaign stresses taking repeat violent offenses seriously. Endorsement: the NC Values Coalition. Dirt search: no discipline, scandal, or broken-promise file surfaced in the deep pass; his appellate judging is unproven — a watch posture, never a demerit.

Pros and cons

Walczyk: Pros: Nineteen years of district judging with a documented administrative record — family-court reforms, pandemic remote hearings, backlog and self-represented-litigant programs are real institutional work; endorsements from two former state supreme court justices. Cons: A self-stated philosophy of flexibility — adapting older law to present situations — is the living-constitution position our doctrine exists to oppose on an appellate court that writes statewide precedent. Collins: Pros: A decade judging at both trial levels after nine years prosecuting — including lead drug prosecutor and domestic-violence grant work — and thousands of cases prosecuted and defended; an explicit follow-the-established-law, no-agendas pledge. Cons: No appellate record; his public philosophy file is thinner than his service file, so voters are extrapolating the pledge from the career, which is stated here as exactly that.

Record gaps

OUR CALL

Our call: endorse Craig Collins. The evidentiary basis: in an open seat, philosophy is the tiebreaker and here it is not close. Walczyk — whose two decades of competent, reform-minded district judging we credit in full — states on the record that older law needs flexibility to fit present situations; that is the adaptive-constitution method, and on a court whose published opinions steer cases statewide it is the one commitment LiberalMind cannot endorse. Collins states the opposite commitment — political agendas do not move established law — and his ledger supports believing him: nine years as a prosecutor including lead drug and domestic-violence work, thousands of cases on both sides, and ten years judging at both trial levels without a documented flaw in the pass. His appellate inexperience is unproven, not a demerit. Vote Collins.

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Sources

Election result — November 4, 2026

Result pending. No verified call (Associated Press or official) as of November 4, 2026. This page will be updated when the race is called or certified. The original article above is unchanged.

AI-assisted article — but the sources are human, and the facts are very real.

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