North Carolina Groups Oppose Confirmation of Judicial Nominee David Bragdon

WASHINGTON, D.C., October 7, 2025 – Today a coalition of civil rights groups based in North Carolina issued a letter calling on senators to oppose the confirmation of David Bragdon, nominated by President Trump to serve on the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina. Bragdon’s troubling ideologies, including on abortion and capital punishment, make him unfit to serve as an objective jurist who will uphold the rights of North Carolinians and the rule of law.

Bragdon has been so zealous in his support for the death penalty that he has dismissed concerns of racial bias in its implementation by insisting that “the guilty white offenders suffer it as the guilty blacks do.”

On abortion, he has expressed a belief in fetal personhood, equated abortion to murdering an unwanted neighbor, and suggested that women with unintended pregnancies “knew the risks” and “must face the consequences.”

Bragdon openly disdains people living in poverty, believing those who benefit from social welfare programs are “characterized by idleness, illegitimacy, drugs, and crime.” He likewise fears that “equality is beginning to replace liberty as the primary principle.”

“It’s not hard to imagine just how much harm someone like David Bragdon could do to North Carolinians in a lifetime role on the federal bench,” said Rachel Rossi, president of Alliance for Justice. “Like Trump’s other nominees, he demonstrates an allegiance not to the Constitution or rule of law, but to an extremist agenda that simply disregards the welfare of the American people. North Carolina deserves so much better.”

“Abortion is a common part of reproductive healthcare, and the majority of North Carolinians, like the majority of Americans, support safe and dignified access to that care. A judge’s role is always to follow the rule of law and precedent and to protect our rights, not to use their position to push an extreme and ideological anti-abortion agenda,” said Tara Romano, Executive Director of Pro-Choice North Carolina. “David Bragdon has made clear his extreme and out-of-touch beliefs on abortion. We urge the Senate to oppose the confirmation of David Bragdon to the U.S. District Court for the Middle of North Carolina”.

“We don’t expect judges to give up their personal convictions when they become judges. We do expect them to justly apply the law of the land, which is secular and separate from religious dogma,” said a spokesperson for Indivisible Guilford County NC. “Bragdon’s past comments cause concern about potential further weakening of the separation of religion and state. We are not and must never become a theocracy like Iran. The Senate must reject the Bragdon nomination.”

The Senate Judiciary Committee will consider Bragdon’s nomination this Thursday.

The North Carolina-based groups that signed the letter are:

• A Woman’s Choice of Raleigh, A Woman’s Choice of Charlotte, A Woman’s Choice of Greensboro

• Carolina Jews For Justice

• Democracy North Carolina

• Emancipate NC

• Indivisible Guilford County

• Indivisible Lake Norman

• Ipas US

• N.C. For The People Action

• NAACP North Carolina State Conference

• NASW-NC

• Pro-Choice North Carolina

• Red Wine & Blue

Click here to read the sign-on letter.

Click here to learn more about David Bragdon’s disturbing record.