North Carolina judicial candidates attended a fundraiser hosted by Harvey West Jr.

Several Republicans running for seats on North Carolina’s courts this fall attended a fundraising event last year at the home of Harvey West Jr., a former GOP district chairman who served time in prison after pleading guilty to charges of child sex offenses.

Sarah Stevens, Craig Collins, George Bell, Matt Smith and Kyle Jones attended the sixth annual North Carolina Judicial Picnic in September 2025, according to the Albemarle Observer. West and his wife, Kim Cotten-West, hosted the gathering. State Supreme Court Justice Trey Allen served as emcee, introducing candidates running in the 2026 election.

Also known as the Down East Judicial Picnic, the event raised money for Republican judicial candidates. The News & Observer reported June 23 that Stevens received $4,000 in October 2025 from the Al-Pam Republican Club, a political action committee that distributed contributions to candidates attending the picnics. Stevens told the newspaper the money came from people in the 1st Congressional District.

Stevens, then a state representative and now a Supreme Court candidate, has said she did not know about West’s criminal history. In a June interview with the North State Journal, she said, “When I go to an event with 150 people, I don’t check everybody’s criminal history for their lifetime.”

The fundraising connections later became the focus of an Aug. 30 protest at a separate Republican judicial event. More than 20 demonstrators gathered at Greensboro’s Bur-Mil Park during a picnic hosted by the Guilford County Republican Men’s Club.

Protesters held signs that read “Protect Kids Not Predators” and shouted questions at Stevens, Chief Justice Paul Newby and Collins about whether they would give up money raised by West. The three did not answer as they entered.

West’s criminal history had drawn public attention long before the campaign events. He pleaded guilty in 2000 to five counts of taking indecent liberties with children, served time in prison until 2006, and was required to register as a sex offender for at least 10 years.

In 2012, he resigned as an alternate Republican National Convention delegate after news coverage of his record was published. West denied having committed the crimes and told the Associated Press he had pleaded guilty to indecent liberties to avoid risking decades in prison on the original charges of statutory rape that had been brought against him.

He remained involved in Republican politics. Michael Whatley, then the state GOP chairman and now the Republican nominee for U.S. Senate, appointed him to the party’s Plan of Organization Committee in 2021 and 2024. West had been appointed to the committee numerous times before by other Republicans, he told Politifact, beginning in 2011.

Beginning in 2019, West served as vice chair of the GOP’s 1st Congressional District Committee, becoming chair when the previous officeholder resigned and being reelected by committee members since 2020. In a March 12, 2026, letter, West announced his resignation from the position.

In the Nov. 3 election, Stevens faces Democratic Supreme Court Justice Anita Earls. Bell faces Democratic Court of Appeals Judge Toby Hampson, while Collins faces Democratic District Court Judge Christine Walczyk.

All three races are for eight-year terms.