District court judge Craig Turner announced today – within hours of the announcement of judge Andy Hanford’s decision not to see reelection to a superior court judgeship – that he would seek the post in 2026.
Turner, a Republican, was elected to district court in 2024, after previously having served on the county’s board of commissioners for almost four years. Hanford is a Democrat.
Turner pointed to his long record of experience in handling superior court cases as a private sector attorney and as an assistant district attorney as qualifying him to pursue the superior court seat.
“After graduating from Elon Law in 2010, I was a law clerk at the N.C. Business Court, handling complex civil (superior court) cases. I have litigated civil lawsuits for over 10 years in superior court,” Turner noted in a statement to The Alamance News, also having worked as an Alamance County prosecutor in superior court.
“It’s a natural fit,” he said in a brief interview with the newspaper Monday afternoon.
Turner pointed to his electoral support from the public over the past five years – he was nominated by the executive committee of the Republican party and appointed to the board of commissioners in 2021 and elected to the board in 2022.
Then he was elected district court judge in 2024.
Turner is a graduate of Williams High School Williams (1991), the U.S. Naval Academy (1995), and Elon University School of Law (2010).
There will be two superior court judgeships on the ballot of 2026 – that of Hanford, as well as Doug Green, who was appointed to the bench by Gov. Roy Cooper in December 2024 to fill the remainder of the term of then-judge Tom Lambeth, which, like Hanford’s, ends next December. Both 2026 elections for superior court will be for eight-year terms.
