Supreme Court Justice Anita Earls is undergoing treatment for breast cancer, she announced Tuesday.

Earls is on the ballot this year, seeking another eight-year term on the court where she serves as one of just two Democratic justices on the seven-member court.

Earls said she was diagnosed in late 2025, quickly had surgery and, following a positive prognosis by her doctors, is scheduled for further treatment later this month. She said none of it affects her political plans or her desire to continue serving the state.

“If there’s one thing my life has taught me, it’s how to find strength in the face of adversity,” the 65-yer-old Earls wrote. “I am a mother and grandmother, a public servant and a fighter. This diagnosis is another hurdle to overcome, but let me be clear: I’m staying in the race to keep my seat on the North Carolina Supreme Court. I’ve never backed down from a tough fight, and I’ll always stand up for the rights of all North Carolinians.”

Earls’ political opponent this year, Republican state Rep. Sarah Stevens, also has fought breast cancer. She was first diagnosed in 2004, then following treatment, she announced in 2024 it had returned and she was undergoing breast cancer treatments again. Stevens, 64, is now in remission.

Justice Allison Riggs, the court’s only other Democrat, also worked with Earls in the private sector and praised her Tuesday as a valuable justice on the state’s highest court. Riggs was a lawyer at the Southern Coalition for Social Justice, a Durham-based civil rights group Earls founded, and she took over leadership of the group after Earls was elected to the Supreme Court in 2018. Riggs later followed her to the court as well, wining election in 2024.

 “Justice Earls has been my friend and mentor for nearly 20 years – no one is more committed to serving the people of North Carolina,” Riggs wrote in a social media post Tuesday. “She and I remain clear-eyed about taking back the courts for justice. And the next step is re-electing Justice Earls in 2026.”

Riggs’ 2024 victory means that Democrats have the chance to flip back control of the Supreme Court as soon as 2028, when three Republican-held seats will be up for grabs. A 2026 victory by Earls would make that task easier for Democrats.

Democrats had a 6-1 majority on the Supreme Court as recently as 2020. But they lost every single statewide judicial race in 2020 and again in 2022, and Republicans now hold a 5-2 majority on the Supreme Court as well as a sizeable advantage on the state Court of Appeals.

North Carolina Democratic Party Chair Anderson Clayton wrote in a news release that the party supports Earls staying in the race after her diagnosis.

“From litigating in the courtroom to protect civil rights, to defending our individual rights, to fighting for equal justice – and now fighting breast cancer – she has never backed down,” Clayton wrote.