Tobias (Toby) Hampson

Democratic Partyincumbent

NC Court of Appeals Judge Seat 2 · Wake County, North Carolina · November 3, 2026

Also on the ballot: George Cooper Bell (Republican Party)

Tobias "Toby" Hampson is the Democratic incumbent on the NC Court of Appeals, Seat 2, in office since January 2019 and seeking re-election against Republican George Bell. His record includes a 2025 dissent opposing disqualification of tens of thousands of ballots in the Griffin v. Riggs Supreme Court election dispute. No campaign finance figures or Trump statements were found.

What this office decides

The North Carolina Court of Appeals is the state's intermediate appeals court: fifteen judges elected statewide in partisan races to eight-year terms, hearing cases in panels of three. It decides most appeals from trial courts and state agencies, including criminal convictions, custody and family cases, business disputes, and challenges to state rules, and its rulings stand unless the Supreme Court takes the case.

How this race lines up with you

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Dossier

Researched 2026-09-23 · Claude Code research agent with web search

Donald Trump: nothing found. No search results found any statement by Donald Trump about Hampson's candidacy.

Who they are

Tobias "Toby" Hampson is the Democratic incumbent on the NC Court of Appeals, Seat 2, in office since January 1, 2019, after winning election in 2018 with 48.79% of the vote (Wikipedia). Before the bench, he was a partner at Wyrick, Robbins, Yates & Ponton in Raleigh, leading its appellate practice group and serving as counsel of record on 186 appellate decisions (Wikipedia).

Positions

Crime & policing: No public position found beyond the rulings below.
Party politics in courts and agencies: Says court decisions must follow the law "rather than partisan agendas" (FLIP NC).
Business & regulation: No public position found.
Voting rules: Dissented from a 2025 ruling disqualifying already-cast ballots after the election, writing that doing so "is directly counter to law, equity, and the Constitution" (Carolina Journal).

Record

Authored the 2020 opinion in Holmes v. Moore on the state's voter ID law and a 2022 opinion in Coastal Conservation Association v. State of North Carolina, holding the state could be sued over fisheries management (Wikipedia; Carolina Journal). On April 4, 2025, he dissented from a 2-1 ruling favoring Jefferson Griffin's challenge to roughly 65,000 ballots in the 2024 Supreme Court race, writing Griffin had not identified "a single voter...who was, in fact, ineligible" (Carolina Journal).

Money

No campaign finance totals found; OpenSecrets had not posted data for this cycle (OpenSecrets).

What we couldn't find

No campaign finance figures.
No Trump endorsement or criticism found.
Could not confirm a reported early poll showing Bell leading 43%-41% (Wikipedia).

Sources (6)