Cheri Beasley

Cheri Lynn Beasley (born February 14, 1966) is an American attorney and jurist who served as the chief justice of the North Carolina Supreme Court from 2019 to 2020; she was appointed an associate justice in 2012. Beasley previously served on the North Carolina Court of Appeals and as a district court judge in Cumberland County, North Carolina. Beasley was the Democratic nominee in the 2022 United States Senate election in North Carolina. She lost to Republican nominee Ted Budd. Education Beasley earned a Bachelor of Arts in political science and economics at Douglass College of Rutgers University–New Brunswick in 1988 and a Juris Doctor from the University of Tennessee College of Law in 1991. She also earned a Master of Laws from Duke University School of Law in 2018. Judicial career Beasley spent her first years after law school as an assistant public defender in Cumberland County, North Carolina. She was first appointed to the bench as a state district court judge by Governor Jim Hunt in 1999, and then elected in a 2002 election. She was reelected without opposition in 2006. She served as a Judge in District 12 (Cumberland County) until her election to the Court of Appeals.