During the course of the last several decades a national trend of more contested, costly, and acrimonious judicial campaigns has emerged. In this regard, these contests have begun to take on the characteristics of races for high profile offices. During the 1980s North Carolina's elections for its court of appeals and supreme court followed these trends. The Republican Party in the state, prior to the 1980s, had generally not contested these races. However, over the course of the last decade Republicans suddenly began to challenge the Democrats for seats on the two appellate division courts, and to do so quite competitively. Just as suddenly, in 1992 there was a reversal of Republican strategy as they contested only four out of ten seats in the appellate division. This article analyzes the 1992 election cycle and its significance in relation to the aforementioned statewide and national trends.