Republican Ballot: NC Court of Appeals Judge Seat 15 - Chris Freeman & Hunter Murphy

Unlock the secrets behind the Republican race for NC Court of Appeals Judge, Seat 15, as I share a comprehensive analysis of candidates Chris Freeman and Hunter Murphy. . Be informed, be prepared, and join us on this episode to understand the values and experiences shaping the candidates who seek to earn your trust in the upcoming primaries.

Chris Freeman & Hunter Murphy

NC Deep Dive’s Voters’ Guide for the 2024 Primary Election

Ballotpedia

WRAL’s Voters’ Guide

Raleigh News & Observer Voters’ Guide

INDY Week’s Candidate Questionnaire

Campaign Finance Reports for All Candidate Committees

Voter Information
--Register to Vote
--Voter Info (Designated Polling Places, Sample Ballots, Registration Status, Voting Jurisdiction, Verify Address and Party Affiliation)
--Election Information
 --Election Day Voting FAQs
--Absentee by Mail FAQs

Closest Early Voting Locations
February 15th-March 2nd

W.E. Hunt Recreation Center in Holly Springs

Hilltop Needmore Town Park & Preserve

2024 Primary Election Early Voting Bus Route Guide

 ELECTION DAY
 Tuesday, March 5th from 6:30 AM to 7:30 PM

Transcript

Amanda Benbow Lunn: 0:10

Hello friends, thanks for joining me and the NC Deep Dive. I am your host, Amanda Benbow-Lunn, and we are delving into the 2024 primary election. Each episode will cover a different race that will be on your primary ballot this election. When you go to vote, you will be handed a ballot based on your address and party affiliation. If you are unaffiliated sometimes also referred here as independent then you will have your choice of which party's ballot you would like to vote. Please note that you are only able to cast one ballot and that there are no primary ballots for the Green Party or the no Labels Party. Moreover, candidates for the general election in November who do not have a primary challenger will not appear on your primary ballot. They get a pass directly to the general election. Due to time constraints and the plethora of candidates, and my belief that having as much information as possible is of vast importance, our primary election segment will consist of me covering one race at a time, as time allows, and going over each candidate's website and what I can find on a simple Google search, in case it is easier for you to take in information this way. If you are short on time, you can check out our NC Deep Dives Voters Guide for the 2024 primary election, found pinned to our Facebook page or on this episode's show notes at www. ncdeepdive. com. It will be an easy way to access each candidate's website and research the candidates on your own. If that's a better use of your time, without further ado, my friends, let's dive in.

Amanda Benbow Lunn: 1:52

Next up we will be looking at the Republican ballot for the NC Court of Appeals Judge for seat 15. The two candidates for this race are Chris Freeman and Hunter Murphy. First, we will start with Chris Freeman. His website is chrisfreeman4judge. com. It says Chris Freeman for North Carolina Court of Appeals and Experienced Conservative Judge who defends the Constitution and enforces the laws. As written. I'm Judge Chris Freeman and I'm thrilled to announce my candidacy for the North Carolina Court of Appeals in 2024.

Amanda Benbow Lunn: 2:29

For the last 17 years I've been honored to serve the people of Rockingham and Caswell counties as a District Court Judge and Assistant District Attorney. I aim to bring my steadfast commitment to the conservative judicial philosophy to the appellate court level, serving all North Carolinians. In my third term as a District Court Judge, I've dedicated. In my third term as a District Court Judge, I've dedicated nearly two decades to public service. Before joining the bench, I served as an Assistant District Attorney for eight years fighting for justice in our communities. Track record advocacy and justice upholding North Carolina justice for 17 years Military service. In 2013, I took my commitment to service a step further by joining the United States Air Force. I'm proud to currently serve as a reservist in the JAG Corps, providing legal expertise to our military Community involvement. Community is important to me. I'm an active member of the Osborne Baptist Church in Eden, north Carolina. I hold board positions with the Betsy Jeff Penn 4-H Center, the Mon Rotan Volunteer Fire Department, the NWTF Sora Town Chapter and the United Way of Rockingham County.

Amanda Benbow Lunn: 3:40

Education and philosophy I'm a native North Carolinian, born and raised. I attended high school in Ashboro, north Carolina, and later earned a BS in business administration from High Point University. I obtained my law degree from Regent University, where I was influenced by the institution's motto Christian Leadership, change the World, it says. Thank you for visiting my website. I'm working hard to meet as many people as possible, but you can help. Please look me up on Facebook. Don't forget to share my page with all your friends across the state. Then he has a Facebook page and a LinkedIn button and that appears to be the entirety of his website.

Amanda Benbow Lunn: 4:14

I did look him up on ballotpedia. He did not complete the questionnaire that they have, but it does list his campaign finance stuff For this 2024 election. From January 1st of 2023 through December 31st of 2024, his contributions total $25,895. He has 75 unique contributors. His expenditures have been $7,654 with 36 unique payees. I do not see anything by way of endorsements on his page and basic Google search didn't bring up anything of substance. He I did not see anything on Indie Week for him. Chris Freeman did not participate in our NC Deep Dive Voters Guide. There is information about him from WRAL's Voters Guide and they just compiled things that they found online.

Amanda Benbow Lunn: 5:09

Moving on to Hunter Murphy, doing a basic Google search of him, I had difficulty finding a website Looking up on WRAL's Voters Guide. It links to his North Carolina courtsgov page, which is North Carolina Judicial Branch. It talks about his early years. Born in Arizona on January 24th 1981, to Jeff and Melanie Murphy. Judge Murphy was raised in Wainesville, north Carolina, with two brothers, kyle and Blake, and was a varsity swimmer at Tascola High School. He married Kelly in 2009 and is the father of twins.

Amanda Benbow Lunn: 5:46

A member of the Pinnacle Church of Canton. His educational information he went to the University of the Pacific McGeorge School of Law, he got his JD in 2006,. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, he got his Bachelor's of Arts in Economics and Religious Studies, and that was 2003. His professional background a partner at Ryden or Murphy and Goss from 2006 to 2012,. A solo practitioner at Hunter Murphy Law PC from 2012 to 2016. Professional organizations he's been a part of the North Carolina State Bar since 2006,. The Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians Tribal Bar in 2006,. The Federal District Court for Western District of North Carolina in 2009, and the North Carolina Bar Association Criminal Law, constitutional Law and Appellate to Law Sections. His hobbies and community activities listed are Coaching, little League, attending sporting events, enjoying time with his children, wife and two dogs. But again, this is the NCQuartzgov page. It's not his campaign page.

Amanda Benbow Lunn: 6:51

I had difficulty finding that on the Google search as well. I found two things that might be relevant for some voters. There was a ruling withdrawn and there were a few different articles from a few different sources on this, but basically, a controversial opinion published by the North Carolina Court of Appeals back in October of last year was withdrawn, effectively making it as if it never was written. The decision dealt with the termination of a mother's parental rights because she had committed a crime while she was pregnant, judge Hunter Murphy, the Republican running in this primary, ruled that her parental rights could be terminated even though the child hadn't yet been born at the time of the mother's crimes because quote unquote life begins at conception. Legal professionals criticized the ruling, which they said misconstrued the precedent on which it relied, and warned that it could profoundly affect families across the state it's quoted. We have a case of judicial activism here where, rather than other entities like the legislature trying to enshrine personhood, we have judges doing this. Eugene H Soar, clerk of the North Carolina Court of Appeals, signed an order stating that judges Murphy, jefferson Griffin and Toby Hampson all of whom concurred in the opinion though Hampson concurred and result only, meaning he agreed with the outcome but not the reasoning had ordered that the opinion be withdrawn, and that means the potential precedent it had established regarding personhood no longer exist. So that was one piece of news that showed up on the Google search. The other was again there were multiple news reports that stated it.

Amanda Benbow Lunn: 8:29

Murphy, who was a trial attorney from Haywood County, was censured in 2020 for enabling a toxic work environment. According to NC Newsline, a friend who Murphy, hired as his executive assistant, started bullying and harassing co-workers and exhibited a pattern of making lewd or sexually inappropriate remarks in the workplace. The reports note that Murphy also participated in making jokes and inappropriate comments. According to Ballotpedia, hunter Murphy did not answer the candidate connection survey questionnaire. It lists campaign finance information and for this election, 2024, from January 1st of 2023 through December 31st of this year, his total contributions have been $1,896. He himself is the only contributor to his campaign. According to this, his expenditures are the same amount and that is what he paid the North Carolina State Board of Elections to, I'm guessing, run for this race. And that is all that I found through a simple Google search of both these candidates. And again, this is for the NC Court of Appeals Judge, seat 15. This will be on the Republican primary ballot. The two candidates again are Chris Freeman and Hunter Murphy, and neither of them participated in our NC Deep Dive Voters Guide and I had mentioned that I didn't see anything on Indie Week for Chris. I also did not see anything on Indie Week for Hunter Murphy either, but again, wral's Voter Guide. That basically, is a compilation of things that they found online, so you might be able to find information there as well.

Amanda Benbow Lunn: 10:12

Democracy is the foundation of all we hold dear. We are better as a community, state and nation when we all take part in our civic duty by being informed and casting our vote. The candidates and offices on your ballot can have a major impact on our everyday lives and can have real consequences. They create and enforce our laws, invest in our future well-being, fund all the things like our schools and roads, ensure we have safe drinking water and food to put on our tables and advocate on behalf of those they represent, hopefully keeping in mind both the little and the big picture of it all.

Amanda Benbow Lunn: 10:50

Early voting is now going on and will continue through Saturday March 2nd. Our closest early voting locations will be the WE Hunt Center in Holly Springs and the Hilltop Neymour Town Park and Preserve in Fuqua Verena. The main primary election will be held on Tuesday March 5th. If you vote that day, it's best for you to go to your designated polling place or else some of the races you are eligible to vote for may not show up on the ballot they have available to give you During early voting. Each area in Wake County has all the possible ballots. For Wake County Election day. They will only have the ballot that corresponds directly to that particular precinct. Please remember you now need to bring your photo ID. If you happen to forget or have had some extraordinary circumstance happen, you will have a few different options provided to you, but it will be best and easiest and most efficient to bring it with you. If, for some reason, you haven't registered to vote yet, you may register and vote at the same time during early voting at any one of the sites. March 2nd will be the last day to register to vote for this primary election, and that brings this episode of the NC Deep Dive to a close.

Amanda Benbow Lunn: 12:02

Make sure you check out all the other relevant episodes for the 2024 primary election at www. ncdeepdive. com, apple Podcasts, spotify, audible or wherever you currently listen to your podcasts. I will be including helpful links for each candidate and voting in general on our website's show notes, including our NC Deep Dives Voters Guide for the 2024 primary election. We were blessed to have many candidates take the time to share their thoughts and speak to voters within Southern Wake County. The Voters Guide is arranged by party affiliation and organized in such a way to make it relatively easy to find the races or candidates you might be interested in. All candidates' websites are linked. If I was able to find one, I also consciously chose to arrange the Voters Guide starting at the end of the ballot.

Amanda Benbow Lunn: 12:50

So often we are aware of the larger races, yet don't hear much about, or take the time to learn about, the smaller races. As always, if you have any questions, concerns or topics you'd like to share, you may contact us via social media or our email at ncdeepdive@gmail. com. Thank you for engaging with this episode and becoming a more informed citizen. Democracy is a team sport. Together, we make democracy work and our communities a better place to work, play and live. Your vote matters, your voice matters. You matter. Until next time, my friends Namaste, the love and light in me sees and honors the love and light in you.